US public library visitsUS self-published books per year
American public-library visits in slow decline as American self-published books per year keep climbing. The library is, statistically, hosting fewer readers; the readers are, statistically, becoming authors elsewhere. The negative correlation is, in places, almost causal.
US public library visits have trended down across this window as digital alternatives, broadband expansion, and pandemic-era closures reduced foot traffic from over 1.5 billion in 2010 to under 1 billion by 2021. Self-published titles per year climbed from a few hundred thousand in 2010 to over 2 million by 2021 as Amazon KDP and falling production costs put publication within reach. Two completely unrelated lines on opposite trajectories sharing a window because the same eleven years saw both a public-institution decline and a personal-publishing platform boom.
The reader became the author. The library lost foot traffic; the publishing system gained entrants.
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Want to learn more about why correlations like “US public library visits” vs “US self-published books per year” don't prove causation? Read our guide to statistical thinking.
