Library membership statistics show how many people hold or actively use library cards, but membership is only one part of public-library reach. The figures below place registered borrowers and active cardholders alongside visits, circulation, programs, digital access, and other services. The reporting periods and geographies differ by source, so the comparisons are descriptive rather than a single national ranking.
Contents
- Membership snapshots
- Membership and physical library use
- Circulation and borrowing activity
- Programs and community participation
- Digital access and online engagement
- Reference, rooms, and public technology
Membership snapshots
The clearest membership measures in the available annual reports are registered borrowers, active cardholders, total cardholders, and new cardholders. These terms should be read as the reporting bodies used them; they are not interchangeable measures of the same population.
Bloomingdale Public Library reported 12,714 registered borrowers as of the last day of its fiscal year. That is a point-in-time membership count, rather than a count of people who visited during the year. The figure appears in the Bloomingdale Public Library Annual Statistics.
Wake County libraries reported over 285,000 active cardholders in the Wake County Public Libraries 2025 Annual Report. “Over” indicates a rounded lower-bound presentation in the report, so the exact total is not stated here. The same report recorded over 3.1 million library visits and over 12 million checkouts, providing context for the scale of activity associated with the county system.
Mid-Continent Public Library reported 521,316 cardholders and 309,023 active cardholders in its 2023-2024 MCPL Annual Report. Because the report presents both measures, it illustrates why a membership statistic should identify whether it counts all cardholders or only active cardholders. The district population served was 840,292.
San Mateo County Libraries reported 249,967 active cardholders and 14,274 new cardholders in its San Mateo County Libraries Annual Report 2024-25. The active-cardholder figure describes the reported active base, while the new-cardholder figure describes additions during that reporting period; they should not be added together.
| Library system and reporting period | Membership measure | Reported count |
|---|---|---|
| Bloomingdale Public Library, fiscal-year end | Registered borrowers | 12,714 |
| Wake County libraries, 2025 annual report | Active cardholders | Over 285,000 |
| Mid-Continent Public Library, 2023-2024 | Cardholders | 521,316 |
| Mid-Continent Public Library, 2023-2024 | Active cardholders | 309,023 |
| San Mateo County Libraries, 2024-25 | Active cardholders | 249,967 |
| San Mateo County Libraries, 2024-25 | New cardholders | 14,274 |
Membership and physical library use
Visits help show how library membership connects with in-person activity, although a visit is not necessarily made by a cardholder and one person may make multiple visits. Bloomingdale Public Library recorded 148,277 total annual visits or attendance in its Bloomingdale Public Library Annual Statistics. The same report listed 3,407 total annual public service hours.
Wake County libraries recorded over 3.1 million library visits in the Wake County Public Libraries 2025 Annual Report. Its scale was also reflected in more than 11,000 volunteer hours, over 179,000 public computer hours used, and more than 1.2 million WiFi hours used.
Mid-Continent Public Library recorded 5,029,606 physical circulation items in 2023-2024 and served a district population of 840,292, according to the 2023-2024 MCPL Annual Report. The report also recorded 191,870 attendance at library programs, 251,555 library computer sessions, and 103,523 meeting room uses.
San Mateo County Libraries recorded 1.7 million library visitors in its 2024-25 annual report. It also logged 4 million WiFi sessions, completed 41,984 laptop checkouts, and completed 23,343 hotspot checkouts. These measures broaden the picture of how library users access services beyond borrowing books at a traditional desk.
The systems therefore report different dimensions of reach: Bloomingdale’s registered-borrower count identifies a local membership base; Wake County and San Mateo report active membership alongside very large visit totals; and Mid-Continent pairs cardholder measures with a stated district population and physical circulation.
Circulation and borrowing activity
Borrowing statistics are among the most direct indicators of how library members use collections. Bloomingdale Public Library reported 272,907 total materials loaned. Within that total, adult materials accounted for 162,994 loans and children’s materials accounted for 98,246 loans. The same annual statistics recorded 164,659 books loaned, 36,246 videos or DVDs loaned, 10,821 audios including music loaned, and 3,041 magazines or periodicals loaned.
Bloomingdale also reported 51,130 electronic material loans. The separate print and electronic figures show why a membership article should include both physical and digital circulation when the source distinguishes them. The report further recorded 35,819 interlibrary loans loaned to other libraries and 28,741 interlibrary loans borrowed from other libraries.
Wake County libraries reported over 12 million checkouts in the Wake County Public Libraries 2025 Annual Report. More than 8.6 million were print checkouts, while over 3.4 million were digital checkouts. These values are presented as rounded “over” figures, so they indicate scale rather than exact totals.
Mid-Continent Public Library recorded 5,029,606 physical circulation items and 5,187,832 digital circulation items in 2023-2024. San Mateo County Libraries reported 2.4 million items circulated in 2024-25. The reports use different labels and precision, so these values should be treated as reported system measures rather than a standardized per-member comparison.
Programs and community participation
Programming is another way to understand what library membership supports. Bloomingdale Public Library reported 901 total library programs and 26,467 total library program attendance. The breakdown included 264 adult programs with attendance of 3,937, 81 young adult programs with attendance of 667, and 556 children’s programs with attendance of 16,864.
The children’s category represented the largest reported program count and attendance in Bloomingdale’s annual statistics. The source gives program totals and attendance totals, but it does not identify unique attendees, so attendance should not be interpreted as the number of individual members who participated.
Wake County libraries presented over 10,500 programs and recorded over 350,000 program attendees in its 2025 annual report. The report also recorded over 1,100 entries in the inaugural bookmark contest. These are participation measures, not cardholder counts, and they may include people who do not have an active card.
Mid-Continent Public Library recorded 191,870 attendance at library programs and 47,415 outreach program attendees in 2023-2024. San Mateo County Libraries held 11,661 programs and events in 2024-25. The two reports use different program and attendance categories, which makes the figures useful for describing service activity but unsuitable for a precise apples-to-apples ranking.
Digital access and online engagement
Library membership increasingly intersects with online resources, WiFi, public computers, and digital borrowing. Bloomingdale Public Library reported 164,236 wireless sessions per year and 18,797 in-library users of public Internet computers. It had 60 public-use computers in the library. The same source recorded 51,130 electronic material loans.
Wake County libraries reported over 2.1 million website visits, over 1.2 million WiFi hours used, and over 179,000 public computer hours used in its 2025 annual report. It also recorded over 125,000 completed Udemy lectures and over 1,700 tutor.com sessions. Those education and tutoring figures show forms of digital service use that are separate from checkouts and visits.
Mid-Continent Public Library recorded 892,476 uses of online resources, 372,355 WiFi sessions, 251,555 library computer sessions, and 8,966,960 website views in 2023-2024. It also recorded 5,187,832 digital circulation items. Website views, resource uses, sessions, and circulation items describe different actions, so they should remain separate when interpreting digital engagement.
San Mateo County Libraries logged 2.8 million website visits and 4 million WiFi sessions in 2024-25. Its 41,984 laptop checkouts and 23,343 hotspot checkouts provide additional measures of technology lending. Together, these reported counts show that library access can extend beyond a building visit or a conventional book loan.
Reference, rooms, and public technology
Membership statistics become more useful when paired with the help and spaces available to cardholders and other community users. Bloomingdale Public Library recorded 44,261 reference questions in its annual statistics. It also recorded 292 meeting room uses and 3,647 study room uses. These counts describe service interactions and space use, not unique members.
Bloomingdale’s 60 public-use computers supported 18,797 in-library Internet-computer users. Wake County’s report measured public computer use in hours, at over 179,000 hours, while Mid-Continent measured library computer sessions, at 251,555. San Mateo reported laptop and hotspot checkouts rather than public-computer sessions. The variation in measurement units is important: users, hours, sessions, and checkouts cannot be substituted for one another.
Mid-Continent Public Library reported 103,523 meeting room uses in 2023-2024, compared with Bloomingdale’s 292 meeting room uses for its fiscal-year reporting period. The systems differ substantially in scale and reporting context, and the supplied reports do not establish a common facility count or service-area definition. The figures are therefore best read as local service indicators.
Taken together, these statistics show several ways to interpret library membership. Registered borrowers and active cardholders describe the membership base; visits, checkouts, and program attendance describe engagement; and WiFi, computer, website, reference, room, and technology-lending measures describe access to broader library services. Each figure remains tied to its named library system and stated reporting period.