Over 64 million media were borrowed from Swedish libraries in 2023, which is around six media, i.e. books, audiobooks or newspapers, per inhabitant and year.
105,637 of them were borrowed in Vännäs, that’s 11.7 books per year and inhabitants. This means that the municipality tops the list of loans per inhabitant during the past year, according to the library report produced by the Royal Library on behalf of Statistics Sweden.
Constant interest in reading in Vännäs
Fewer and fewer Swedes read books, Statistics Norway’s surveys on living conditions show. 40 percent of the population has not read a single book in the past twelve months. But in Vännäs it looks different.
– If we go back at least 20 years, we see that Vännäs residents borrow as much as 20 years ago, says culture and library manager Erik Enström.
Will lecture at the book fair
The library staff from Vännäs travel to the book fair in Gothenburg to share the success factors for many borrowed books.
– It will be great fun to meet librarians from all over the country and talk about these issues, says Jenny Sandells.
Before the trip to the book fair, the staff should dig into the statistics even more to see more clear factors and reasons.
In general, the Västerbottningar borrow and read a lot. Behind Vännäs, Umeå is in second place and the municipality of Bjurholm ends up right next to the podium in fourth place.