Photo: Chris Rand · CC BY-SA 4.0Green Bay’s library lends 4.7 print items per resident, against a typical 3.2 for libraries its size
Brown County Library serves 273,297 people in and around Green Bay from 3 locations. Last year it lent 1.8M books, movies and e-books and logged 633K visits.
What stands out about Brown County Library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Green Bay’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Green Bay is ahead of 52% of U.S. towns, #217 of 358 in Wisconsin. Among the 385 U.S. cities over 100,000 we grade, it ranks #86. Green Bay is graded on two of the three inputs. Green Bay’s count of community nonprofits holds the grade up; the share of younger adults in volunteering groups pulls it down.
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 →
427 community nonprofits are registered in Green Bay
4.0 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: human services.
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 (91 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 7 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
7.5%
7.5% of Green Bay’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 8.6% in the typical Wisconsin 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 Green Bay’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 4 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 100,000+ people across the U.S.
Brown County Library serves 273,297 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 100,000+.
Every hour the doors are open, about 89 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Brown County Library system. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
1.8M loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
484,053 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 23 kids’ programs a week
Story times, clubs, classes and events, across the whole system, by who they’re for.
Programs last year by age group
story times and programs a week for ages 0–5, on average.
3 places to borrow in Green Bay
Brown County Library, 515 Pine St., Green Bay.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Brown County Library branch.
New in Green Bay? The Handbook →Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.
Other Brown County Library branches in Green Bay
For every $1 it spends, the library lends about $3.58 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Green Bay cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $36. Operating budget $7.3M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $26M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $7.3M budget.
Late fines apply to some overdue items.
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 cardholder’s month = the library’s yearly loans, attendance and Wi-Fi sessions ÷ its 78,136 cardholders ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Who has a library of their own, and how much each town borrows. Tap a town to see its library.
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.
- System-wide. Brown County Library serves 273,297 people in and around Green Bay, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Green Bay.
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 Green Bay
Does Green Bay have a public library?
Yes. Brown County Library, 515 Pine St., serves 273,297 people in and around Green Bay (the survey’s count) and is open about 59 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Brown County Library fine-free? Does it lend e-books?
It charges late fines on some overdue items, and it lends e-books and audiobooks with a card (the library’s 2024 survey report).
How busy is Green Bay’s library?
It logged 2.3 visits and lent 6.5 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.1 visits for libraries serving 100,000+ people.
What is Green Bay’s civic life grade?
B− Green Bay is ahead of 52% of U.S. towns on civic life, #217 of 358 in Wisconsin. 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 Green Bay.
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.