Minnesota Among Leaders in Adult Literacy and High School Graduation Rates Despite Middling Library Resources

A new Smart Politics analysis of various education indicators finds that Minnesota ranks at or near the top of key education outputs, despite having only a moderate number of public libraries in the state.

With slightly more than 350 public libraries, the Gopher State ranks just 21st in the nation in terms of libraries per capita, at 1 public library for every 14,623 residents, according to U.S. Census Bureau 2008 population estimates and library data provided by PublicLibraries.com.

Minnesota trails all of its neighbors in the Upper Midwest and great plains region in terms of the number of residents per library in each state: Iowa is third in the nation at 1 library per 5,333 residents, with South Dakota at #4 (5,546), Nebraska at #6 (6,108), North Dakota at #8 (7,128), Kansas at #10 (7,413), and Wisconsin at #15 (13,180).

Vermont (1 library per 3,236 residents) and Maine (4,685) rank 1-2 in the nation with Texas (92,851) and Ohio (62,765) in the bottom two slots.

Despite Minnesota's middling ranking in library resources, the Gopher State is tied with North Dakota and New Hampshire for the highest adult literacy rate in the nation, at 96 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics' National Assessment of Adult Literacy at the U.S. Department of Education.

Minnesota has achieved this #1 status even though a bivariate analysis shows there is significant correlation across the 50 states and District of Columbia between the number of residents per library and the adult literacy rate (-.526, significant at the .01 level). In other words, increases in the number of residents per library in a state are associated with decreases in the level of adult literacy in the state, and vice-versa.

Overall, most states with high literacy rates rank among the nation's leaders in terms of the most libraries per capita. For example, the top six states with the most libraries per capita all rank tied for fourth or better for the highest adult literacy rates in the nation: Vermont, Maine, Iowa, South Dakota, New Hampshire, and Nebraska.

Minnesota also ranks among the best states in the nation in terms of high school graduation rates.

The Gopher State's 86.2 percent graduation rate for the freshmen class of 2005-2006 was the fourth highest in the country, behind three regional neighbors: Wisconsin (87.5 percent), Nebraska (87.0 percent), and Iowa (86.9 percent), according to the National Center for Education Statistics' The Condition of Education 2009 report from the U.S. Department of Education.

High school graduation rates are highly correlated to adult literacy rates across the 50 states and District of Columbia (.654, significant at the .001 level).

Of course, while the availability of public libraries undoubtedly plays a role in shaping education outputs, there are many other factors in play (quality of teachers, student-teacher ratios, curriculum, funding, student family unit stability etc.).

Number of Residents Per Public Library by State

State	Residents per library	Library Rank	Graduation rank	Literacy rank
Vermont	3,236	1	8	4
Maine	4,685	2	26	4
Iowa	5,333	3	3	4
South Dakota	5,546	4	6	4
New Hampshire	5,552	5	11	1
Nebraska	6,108	6	2	4
Alaska	6,728	7	43	15
North Dakota	7,128	8	9	1
Wyoming	7,198	9	28	15
Kansas	7,413	10	23	11
Montana	8,958	11	10	15
West Virginia	10,251	12	25	31
Idaho	10,731	13	14	25
Mississippi	12,193	14	47	40
Wisconsin	13,180	15	1	4
Louisiana	13,206	16	50	40
Arkansas	13,469	17	15	36
Massachusetts	13,481	18	18	21
Connecticut	13,571	19	13	15
Rhode Island	14,200	20	21	11
Minnesota	14,623	21	4	1
Indiana	14,727	22	32	11
Michigan	15,020	23	36	11
Missouri	15,197	24	12	4
Alabama	16,187	25	44	38
Illinois	16,249	26	17	31
New Mexico	17,255	27	42	40
Oklahoma	17,681	28	21	28
Oregon	18,048	29	33	21
Colorado	19,998	30	29	21
Washington	20,151	31	34	21
Tennessee	21,579	32	38	31
Virginia	21,762	33	31	28
D.C.	21,920	34	45	47
Kentucky	22,589	35	24	28
Utah	22,615	36	20	15
South Carolina	23,454	37	49	38
North Carolina	24,270	38	37	36
Delaware	24,945	39	26	25
New York	25,020	40	41	50
Hawaii	25,259	41	29	40
Pennsylvania	25,934	42	7	31
Georgia	26,392	43	48	45
Nevada	30,590	44	51	40
Maryland	32,009	45	16	25
Arizona	32,829	46	39	31
California	33,722	47	40	51
Florida	36,878	48	46	49
New Jersey	46,184	49	5	45
Ohio	62,765	50	19	15
Texas	92,851	51	35	47

Data sources: Library data compiled from publiclibraries.com. Population data from U.S. Census Bureau 2008 population estimates. Graduation rate data from U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, The Condition of Education 2009 (average 2005-2006 freshman graduation rate). Literacy rate data from National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Adult Literacy (denotes percent lacking basic prose literacy skills, defined as those who scored "below basic" in prose and those who could not be tested due to language barriers).

Follow Smart Politics on Twitter.