Seattle Public Library sees record number of visitors in 2025 | Entertainment

Seattle Public Library says it had a record number of visitors in 2025, according to its newly published impact report for the year.

That record number? More than 3.4 million in-person visits among the system’s 27 locations. That’s like if each of Seattle’s roughly 800,000 residents went to the library more than four times a year. 

There were more than 330,000 active library users in 2025, the library found. People visited the Central Library alone more than 2,000 times a day. 

Total their checkouts, both in person and digitally, and that’s 24 checkouts a minute, the library said. Visitors checked out physical materials 5.5 million times and digital materials such as e-books 7.2 million times. SPL ranks 10th in the world for checkouts of digital books, the library said.

The library system also hosted 5,800 programs that were attended by 130,000 people; 1,300 story times and other early literacy programs for 43,000 people; and $8.3 million worth of business services.