Austin Business Journal - 4:48 PM CST Tuesday

Study: Austin is Texas' most literate city


A national study ranked Austin 16th overall -- and first in Texas -- in a ranking of "America's Most Literate Cities."

The study released by Central Connecticut State University develops a statistical profile of 69 cities with populations of 250,000 or more. This is the third year of the study, and introduces a new factor -- internet literacy -- to measure the expansion of literacy to online media.

The top five cities are Seattle, Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and San Francisco.
Austin came in first in Texas and 16th overall. Other Texas cities on the list include Dallas-Fort Worth (44), Houston (53), Arlington (57), San Antonio (64) and Corpus Christi (67).
The study's author, John Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University, says he began the study because "Americans are actively interested in issues affecting their quality of life and how that quality varies from place to place."

The 2005 edition of the study ranks cities based on 6 key indicators of literacy: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment, and internet resources.

The data sources include U.S. Census data, audited newspaper circulation rates, and information on magazine publishing, educational attainment levels, library resources, and booksellers.

© 2005 American City Business Journals In