The Toledo Blade

Toledo 26th in national literacy survey
Glass City moves up 14 places on list

People in Toledo are now reading more than in years past, according to a national survey ranking the Glass City among America's 69 most literate cities.

Toledo ranked 26th out of 69 cities with populations of 250,000 people or more in the national survey by John Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University.

His study ranked cities based on six key indicators of literacy, including library resources, newspaper circulation, number of book stores, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment, and Internet resources.

Seattle, Minneapolis, Washington, Atlanta, and San Francisco, respectively from one through five, were ranked as the most literate cities in the country. Cincinnati was listed as the most literate city in Ohio, tying St. Paul, Minn., for ninth among the top 10 literate cities.

Columbus was ranked 12th and Cleveland was ranked 18th in the study, which was based on information from such data sources as the Census Bureau, audited newspaper circulation rates, information on magazine publishing, educational attainment levels, library resources, and booksellers.

Toledo improved its ranking this year over last year, said Mark McLaughlin, associate vice president-marketing and communications of Central Connecticut State University. Last year, Toledo ranked 40th out of 70 cities. "This enables us to see long-term literacy rates and gives us an appreciation of how people use their literacy," Mr. McLaughlin said.

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