WASHINGTON — Bookworms rejoice! A new survey ranks D.C. as the most literate city in 2016.
D.C. has ranked number one since 2010, only bumped down to number two by Minneapolis in 2014. (No national study is available for 2015.)
Since 2003, this Central Connecticut State University study has been ranking the largest cities in the country using six key factors to indicate literacy: number of bookstores, educational attainment, internet resources, library resources, periodical publishing resources and newspaper circulation.
“Being literate involves far more than being able to read. It involves actually reading. Exhibiting literate behavior is what America’s Most Literate Cities has assessed for 15 years,” said Dr. John W. Miller president emeritus of CCSU. “Do people in a city support bookstores, do they have an excellent library system, do they read a local newspaper, do they practice online literacy, and so on.”
D.C. has ranked in the top 10 since the first survey in 2003.
The top ten most literate cities for 2016 include:
- Washington, D.C.
- Seattle, WA
- Minneapolis, MN
- Atlanta, GA,
- San Francisco, CA
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Portland, OR
- Cincinnati, OH
- St. Paul, MN
- Boston, MA
