The 2022 Quotable Facts details quick facts about Colorado’s public libraries. If you would like a printed booklet of this information please email lrs@lrs.org.
Click on the image to expand it. Click “Download Report” on the right to download a pdf.
Resources and Notes for 2022 Colorado Public Libraries Quotable Facts
Here’s how we came up with the numbers for our booklet “2022 Colorado Public Libraries Quotable Facts.”
Library Locations
- 263 (PLAR 2022 data – “Total Central and Branches”)
- “Over” 263 because some libraries have no data
- 117 King Soopers (“Grocery Stores in Colorado” from King Soopers Website)
- 33 City Market grocery stores (ScrapeHero data “Number of City Market stores in the United States in 2023”)
- 103 Safeways (ScrapeHero data “Number of Safeway Inc stores in the United States in 2023”)
Physical items available for checkout
- 11,142,301 (PLAR 2022 data – “total physical items in collection”)
- Numbers found on JustWatch
- Netflix
- Hulu
- Prime Video
- Max
- Disney+
Programs offered
- 81,747 (PLAR 2022 data – “Total Programs”)
Library of Things collection items
Number of annual visits
- 17,766,143 (PLAR 2022 data – “visits”)
- Visitors to Rocky Mountain National Park: 4.3M (9News article “This national park in Colorado among most popular in US last year”)
- Visitors to Great Sand Dunes National Park: 493,428 (Alamosa News article “Colorado national and state park visitation drops in 2022”)
- Visitors to Black Canyon: 300,000 (Earth Trekkers article “How to Visit the Black Canyon of the Gunnison: North & South Rims”).
- Visitors to Mesa Verde National park: 499,790 (Colorado Politics article “Increases along ‘road less traveled,’ but mostly visitation drops at national parks in Colorado”)
- Total 5,593,218
Program attendance
- 1,670,923 (PLAR 2022 data – “Total Program Attendance”)
- Average cost of movie in Colorado: 10.80 (Frugal Answers article “Average Cost of a Movie Ticket Price (By Theater, By State, By Country))
- Total cost- 18,045,968
Items circulated annually
- 53,997,909 (PLAR 2022 – “Total Circulation”)
Reference questions
- 2,353,924 (PLAR 2022 data – “Reference Transactions”)
Staff
- 3,563 (PLAR 2022 data – “Total Staff (FTE)”)
- 66 of 109 reporting libraries had less than 10 staff members
Libraries that partner
- 93% (PLAR 2022 data – “Did your library partner with one or more organizations or groups in order to better serve your community?”)
- 86 of 92 reporting libraries answered “yes”
State park passes checkouts per week
One on one technology help
- 98 of 108 reporting libraries responded “yes” (PLAR 2022 data – “Technology Help”)
Internet computer usage
- 2,386,866 (PLAR 2022 data – “Uses of Internet Computers”)
Overdue fines
- 88 of 108 responding libraries answered “No” (PLAR 2022 data – “Overdue Fines All”)
Automatic Renewals
57 of 100 responding libraries answered “Yes” (PLAR 2022 data – “Automatic Renewals”)