Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel · CC BY-SA 4.0Rochester Public serves 1,805 people in and around Rochester
Rochester Public serves 1,805 people in and around Rochester.
What’s behind Rochester’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Rochester is ahead of 68% of U.S. towns. Its library’s 2024 visits weren’t reported, so Rochester is graded on two of the three inputs. Rochester’s count of community nonprofits holds the grade up; the share of younger adults in volunteering groups pulls it down.
The survey’s stand-in for Rochester’s 2024 visits is its own estimate, so it is left out.
Civic life counts registered nonprofits, library visits and online volunteering groups, so it can miss civic life that runs through congregations, mutual aid or neighbors looking out for each other.
Library visits: IMLS Public Libraries Survey, FY2024. Nonprofits: IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File, October 2026. Volunteering: Social Capital Atlas (Opportunity Insights), from data by Meta Platforms, Inc.; Chetty et al., Nature 2022. How TownRatings grades civic life →
17 community nonprofits are registered in Rochester
12.1 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: arts & culture.
Community nonprofits, by kind
Counted from the IRS list of tax-exempt organizations by mailing address (fractions where a ZIP code spans towns). Congregations are counted apart (2 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
6.0%
6.0% of Rochester’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 8.5% in the typical Vermont town and 7.5% nationally.
Volunteering: Social Capital Atlas (Opportunity Insights), from data by Meta Platforms, Inc.; Chetty et al., Nature 2022. ZIP-code figures, weighted by where Rochester’s residents live; 2022.
A year at Rochester Public
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Rochester Public system. The library’s own count.
Not reported for 2024: visits and print loans. The survey fills a missing figure with its own estimate; we leave estimates out rather than show them as the library’s count.
Find it
Rochester Public, 22 S. Main St., Rochester.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Rochester Public branch.
New in Rochester? The Handbook →Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.
What a library card is worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Rochester resident borrows (the library didn’t report its card count for 2024).
Retail prices are typical, rounded down: a new book $17, a kids’ book $12, an e-book or e-audiobook $15, a movie rental $4, a class or program $10, a computer or Wi-Fi session $3. The average resident’s month = the library’s yearly loans and Wi-Fi sessions ÷ the 1,805 people it serves ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Who has a library of their own, and how much each town borrows. Tap a town to see its library.
| Town | Library | Loans per resident | Hours | Civic life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hancock | Hancock Free Public fine-free | 1.0 | 14 | — under 1,000 residents |
| Chittenden | Chittenden Public fine-free | 0.7 | 13 | B |
| Rochester | Rochester Public | — | — | B+ |
| Pittsfield | Roger Clark Memorial | — | — | — under 1,000 residents |
| Bethel | Bethel Public | — | — | A+ |
| Stockbridge | Belcher Memorial | — | — | — under 1,000 residents |
| Braintree | None of its own | — | — | A− |
| Goshen | None of its own | — | — | — under 1,000 residents |
| Granville | None of its own | — | — | — under 1,000 residents |
Loans = print + digital items borrowed in the library’s fiscal year, per person it serves. — = no library of its own, a county or regional system (its numbers cover many towns), or no report. Civic life: — = not graded (unincorporated places, whose nonprofits can’t be placed by mailing address, or towns with fewer than two of the three inputs).
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- Not reported for 2024: visits. Rochester Public didn’t report visits; the survey’s estimate is its own, so we leave it out and never rank it.
- Not reported for 2024: print loans. The survey filled the figure with its own estimate, so it is left out.
- System-wide. Rochester Public serves 1,805 people in and around Rochester, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Rochester.
Hours are the survey’s yearly average; libraries are compared with others serving about as many people. How TownRatings uses library figures →
Questions about the library and civic life in Rochester
Does Rochester have a public library?
Yes. Rochester Public, 22 S. Main St., serves 1,805 people in and around Rochester (the survey’s count).
How busy is Rochester’s library?
It lent 0.0 items per resident in 2024 (print). Visits weren’t reported for 2024.
What is Rochester’s civic life grade?
B+ Rochester is ahead of 68% of U.S. towns on civic life. The grade combines library visits per resident, community nonprofits per 1,000 residents and the share of adults 25–44 in volunteering groups. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
Book talk
Reading, story times and the library in Rochester.
Libraries: Institute of Museum and Library Services, Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024. Each library reports its own numbers. Distances are straight-line from the town center. “What your card is worth” uses typical retail prices and is an estimate, not an official figure.