Number of Libraries in the United States as of January 2021 and August 2021

An 8th and 9th Update to ALA Library Fact Sheet 1

See the Seventh Update, Sixth Update, Fifth Update, the Fourth Update, the Third Update, the Second Update, and the First Update.

As of January 2021, using PLS FY2018 numbers, there were an estimated 123,880 libraries of all kinds in the United States.

As of August 2021, using PLS FY2019 numbers, there are an estimated 123,748 libraries of all kinds in the United States today!

Albina Library, a branch of the Multnomah County Library, in Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon (4 November 2012) by Finetooth / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) via Wikimedia Commons

=======================================

No single annual survey provides statistics on all types of libraries. Figures for public, academic, and school libraries come from surveys by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), while the figures for the other libraries come from Information Today’s American Library Directory.

In a press release dated just two weeks after announcing Fiscal Year 2017 data was available, on July 31, 2020, titled IMLS Releases New Data on…