Public Libraries

(asked on 10th March 2025) - View Source
Questioner
Preet Kaur Gill Portrait
Preet Kaur Gill
(Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many public libraries across England and Wales were open in the most recent 10 years for which data is available.

Answered by
Chris Bryant Portrait
Chris Bryant
Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
This question was answered on 17th March 2025

DCMS has policy responsibility for public libraries in England only.

The following table shows the number of open static libraries in England in the most recent 10 years for which data is available. The data is taken from the Arts Council England Basic Dataset for Libraries 2023 which consolidated and validated previous datasets.

1/7/2016

31/12/2019

31/12/2021

31/12/2022

31/12/2023

Number of open static libraries included in the dataset

3,010

2,938

2,914

2,894

2,8771

Number of open static libraries within the statutory provision

2,727

2,585

2,550

2,576

2,5781

1. Figures do not include 10 static libraries for which the operating model is unknown

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