HAPLR Building Size Listing Page

Hennen's American Public Library Ratings
HAPLR ratings are based on data from the U.S. Federal-State Cooperative Service, but only the author, Thomas J. Hennen Jr., is responsible for ratings data at this site.
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HAPLR Building Size Listing Page

Population	Far West	Great Lakes	Mid Eastern	New England	Plains	Rocky Mts	Southeast	Southwest	Average
Over 500,000	0.3	0.8	0.6	0.8	0.5	0.7	0.5	0.4	0.5
250,000 to 499,999	0.4	0.7	0.5		0.5	0.3	0.5	0.4	0.5
100,000 to 249,999	0.5	0.6	0.5	0.8	0.4	0.6	0.4	0.4	0.5
50,000 to 99,999	0.5	0.8	0.6	0.7	0.5	0.6	0.5	0.4	0.6
25,000 to 49,999	0.7	0.9	0.6	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.5	0.5	0.7
10,000 to 24,999	0.8	1.0	0.7	0.9	0.8	0.8	0.6	0.5	0.8
5,000 to 9,999	0.9	1.1	0.8	1.1	1.0	1.0	0.7	0.7	0.9
2,500 to 4,999	1.1	1.2	1.0	1.0	1.3	1.1	0.8	0.9	1.1
1,000 to 2,499	1.5	1.6	1.6	1.4	1.7	1.6	1.2	1.3	1.6
Under 1,000	5.8	5.5	4.4	2.2	2.9	2.8	3.2	3.4	3.4
Grand Total	1.6	1.3	1.1	1.2	1.8	1.2	0.7	0.9	1.2

Up until two years ago, the U.S. was one of the few Western industrialized nations that did not keep track of public library building size. We must applaud FSCS for finally rectifying that shortfall.

Taken together, these numbers tell us important things about library buildings in each region of the country. For example, the smaller the population of the community, the more square feet per capita we find available. Librarians that are planning buildings should keep this in mind. They must also remember when planning a new building the square footage should be above average because the building must stand for the future. The Southeast and Southwest have the smallest buildings relative to population, while the libraries in the Great Plains have the largest.

Now that the data are more complete for building size, the HAPLR web site will include information for building planners that includes ranges and recommendations for library building size.

*Region*	*State*
Far West	AK, CA, HI, NV, OR, WA
Great Lakes	IL, IN, MI, OH, WI
Mid Eastern	DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA
New England	CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT
Plains	IA, KS, MN, MO, ND, NE, SD
Rocky Mountain	CO, ID, MT, UT, WY
South East	AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV
South West	AZ, NM, OK, TX

Revised October 2005

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