Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 3.0Rhinelander’s library lends 5.7 print items per resident, against a typical 3.9 for libraries its size
Rhinelander District Library serves 22,540 people in and around Rhinelander. Last year it lent 166K books, movies and e-books and logged 68K visits.
What stands out about Rhinelander District Library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Rhinelander’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Rhinelander is ahead of 74% of U.S. towns, #129 of 358 in Wisconsin. Rhinelander is graded on two of the three inputs. Both inputs are above most U.S. towns; Rhinelander’s count of community nonprofits ranks highest.
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 →
46 community nonprofits are registered in Rhinelander
5.5 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: youth, sports & recreation.
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 (8 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
8.0%
8.0% of Rhinelander’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 Rhinelander’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 6 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people across the U.S.
Rhinelander District Library serves 22,540 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 58 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Rhinelander District Library system. The library’s own count.
Almost half the print loans are kids’ books
166K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
37,681 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 6 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.
Find it
Rhinelander District Library, 106 N. Stevens St., Rhinelander.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Rhinelander District Library branch.
New in Rhinelander? The Handbook →Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.
For every $1 it spends, the library lends about $2.39 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Rhinelander cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $1.1M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $2.5M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $1.1M 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 9,174 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. Rhinelander District Library serves 22,540 people in and around Rhinelander, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Rhinelander.
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 Rhinelander
Does Rhinelander have a public library?
Yes. Rhinelander District Library, 106 N. Stevens St., serves 22,540 people in and around Rhinelander (the survey’s count) and is open about 55 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Rhinelander District 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 Rhinelander’s library?
It logged 3.0 visits and lent 7.4 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.1 visits for libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people.
What is Rhinelander’s civic life grade?
B+ Rhinelander is ahead of 74% of U.S. towns on civic life, #129 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 Rhinelander.
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.