Queens takes crown as most bookish borough after seeing massive surge in book checkouts

Queens is officially the most bookish borough.The World’s Borough library system saw the biggest surge in book checkouts from last year to this year — as bookworms across the Queens Public Library’s 66 locations consumed nearly 11 million books, magazines and movies during the 2025 fiscal year, The Post has learned.That’s a 24% surge from the 8.7 checked out in 2024.That also doesn’t count the social programming, educational tools and computer usage rates, the latter of which also reached record numbers last year at QPL.“While book borrowing is central to QPL’s mission, it represents only one dimension of our work,” explained Lisi de Bourbon, a spokesperson for the Queens system.“The growth in library card registrations, and use of e-content, computers and Wi-Fi reflect the growing demand for these services in New York City.Even when a card is not used for traditional borrowing, it provides access to a wide range of resources that advance equity, opportunity, and community connection.”QPL also welcomed 114,944 new cardholders this year, a 7% jump from last year, but its 1.6 million-strong membership base still makes it the smallest of the Big Apple’s three systems, data from the mayor’s management report shows.

The New York Public Library, the famous system with 92 locations across the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, saw a slight dip in its circulation rate in 2025 — essentially hovering at 17 million books.But NYPL welcomed 447,636 new members, a 23% jump from last year’s cardholders to bring the new total to 2,375,000.Similarly, the Brooklyn Public Library only saw a small 2% increase in its circulation.Brooklyn readers checked out about 9.7 million books last year, which is significantly lower than QPL’s circulation despite the Kings County branch boasting a much larger membership base.There are 1,728,000 BPL members, about 202,800 of whom joined last year for a 13% increase.The data indicate that New York and Brooklyn library...