UPI Wire Report
Seattle residents most literate

SEATTLE, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- Seattle is tops in the country's latest literacy poll that ranked amount of reading done by residents in the 69 largest U.S. cities.

Dr. John Miller is president of Central Connecticut State University and lead author of the third annual nationwide study.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports the city ranked second last year and attributes their rise in 2005 to an additional category for judging -- the Internet.

It looked at online book orders, the number of public wired and wireless Internet connections as well as the percentage of people who read newspapers online.

Other categories include bookstores per capita, published media in the city, newspaper circulation and education of the population.

And then there are the libraries.

Andrea Addison, a spokeswoman for the Seattle Public Library system said 80 percent of residents have a library card.

She said the growth of the library system -- 2 million more items checked out last year than in 2000 -- probably helped boost Seattle to No. 1 as well.

Seattle has 24 library branches besides the Central Library.


 

Back to Media