Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

NEWSLETTER
Sign up for our twice-weekly newsletter!

Study: District is most literate city in nation

Looks like those 1,000-page Congressional bills have finally paid off.

D.C. is the most literate city in the nation, a recent study found.

Capturing the No. 1 ranking on the list is a bump up from last year’s survey, when the city held second place, behind Seattle.

This year, Seattle and Minneapolis trailed behind D.C., placing in second and third place, respectively.

The study – based on census data from 2009 – focused on cities with populations of 250,000 or higher, measuring newspaper circulation, the number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishers, education levels and Internet resources.

The Internet resources category measured the number of online books and newspapers and the number of webpage views for online papers per capita.

The District earned first place for its newspaper circulation, Internet resources and number of magazines and journals published. It fared worst in the bookstores category, landing the No. 17 spot out of 75 major cities for the number of retailers per 10,000 people, taking into account rare and used bookstores.

In the fall, the District was also ranked the most educated city based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, with at least 47 percent of residents holding a bachelor’s degree.

More to Discover
Donate to The GW Hatchet