Last year, Minneapolis was in joint first place and St. Paul was fourth in the league of America's most literate cities. This year, Minneapolis drops to third place, and St. Paul is seventh on the list. Seattle, Minneapolis' long-time rival for the top spot, is the outright winner for first place.
The rankings are calculated by calculating the education levels, libraries, internet resources, newspapers, magazines, and bookstores in a city.
What happened? In 2009, one of Seattle's major print newspapers, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, went online only, leaving Seattle with only one print newspaper, the Seattle Times, with a circulation half that of Minneapolis' (beleaguered) Star Tribune. Minneapolis' public libraries, part of the Hennepin County Library system, have seen significant budget cuts and reduced hours at some locations. Minneapolis seems to be far less internet-literate than Seattle is, although some of that is due to one of Seattle's major newspapers being online only.
The rankings are very close, and it doesn't take much to switch up the top cities. Do you think we'll be back on top next year?
Here's the full list of America's most literate cities for 2009.
- Seattle, WA
- Washington, DC
- Minneapolis, MN
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Atlanta, GA
- Portland, OR
- St. Paul, MN
- Boston, MA
- Cincinnati, OH
- Denver, CO
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