State Library of North Carolina
North Carolina Public Library Statistics, FY 1996/97

Table 9. Library Total Square Footage

		1996 Legal Service Population	Total Square Footage 1996-97 Survey	Space Needed @ .5 Feet Per Capita	Diff. +/-
County Libraries
1	Mecklenburg	593,514	326,319	296,757	29,562
2	Wake	539,187	199,174	269,594	-70,420
3	Guilford (Greensboro)	305,260	153,066	152,630	436
4	Cumberland	294,195	126,984	147,098	-20,114
5	Forsyth	284,183	164,300	142,092	22,209
6	Durham	193,550	102,068	96,775	5,293
7	Buncombe (Asheville)	190,852	86,555	95,426	-8,871
8	Onslow	150,216	21,345	75,108	-53,763
9	New Hanover	143,430	67,004	71,715	-4,711
10	Davidson	138,147	49,962	69,074	-19,112
11	Rowan	121,003	58,600	60,502	-1,902
12	Randolph	118,668	43,200	59,334	-16,134
13	Pitt (Sheppard)	114,794	36,489	57,397	-20,908
14	Cabarrus (Cannon)	113,598	44,780	56,799	-12,019
15	Wayne	112,386	24,825	56,193	-31,368
16	Robeson	112,005	33,186	56,003	-22,817
17	Union	102,083	32,600	51,042	-18,442
18	Johnston	99,215	36,419	49,608	-13,189
19	Catawba	95,537	52,475	47,769	4,707
20	Iredell	92,733	20,205	46,367	-26,162
21	Rockingham	89,250	49,275	44,625	4,650
22	Nash (Braswell)	86,026	15,000	43,013	-28,013
23	Burke	82,372	26,000	41,186	-15,186
24	Cleveland	81,804	29,000	40,902	-11,902
25	Harnett	79,488	21,500	39,744	-18,244
26	Henderson	77,558	53,200	38,779	14,421
27	Caldwell	74,265	55,041	37,133	17,909
28	Wilson	68,460	32,284	34,230	-1,946
29	Brunswick	62,856	20,856	31,428	-10,572
30	Rutherford	59,334	15,500	29,667	-14,167
31	Edgecombe	56,054	18,650	28,027	-9,377
32	Stanly	54,588	27,151	27,294	-143
33	Columbus	51,852	24,286	25,926	-1,640
34	Sampson-Clinton	51,498	16,320	25,749	-9,429
35	Haywood	50,639	38,200	25,320	12,881
36	Lee	47,402	22,189	23,701	-1,512
37	Duplin	43,535	12,329	21,768	-9,439
38	Franklin	42,738	12,481	21,369	-8,888
39	Granville (Thornton)	41,921	17,553	20,961	-3,408
40	Vance (Perry)	40,621	12,600	20,311	-7,711
41	Halifax	40,394	20,277	20,197	80
42	McDowell	38,317	19,920	19,159	762
43	Pender	35,978	17,500	17,989	-489
44	Scotland	35,030	9,400	17,515	-8,115
45	Davie	30,590	18,120	15,295	2,825
46	Alexander	30,584	7,200	15,292	-8,092
47	Bladen	30,090	15,132	15,045	87
48	Transylvania	27,558	11,171	13,779	-2,608
49	Madison	18,194	11,598	9,097	2,501
50	Warren	18,183	2,674	9,092	-6,418
51	Polk	16,195	5,677	8,098	-2,421
	Totals	5,477,930	2,337,640	2,738,965	-401,325
Regional Libraries
52	Gaston-Lincoln	235,198	105,633	117,599	-11,966
53	Sandhill	180,423	91,267	90,212	1,056
54	Central NC	162,203	40,614	81,102	-40,488
55	CPC	157,525	66,905	78,763	-11,858
56	Northwestern	152,435	83,906	76,218	7,689
57	Appalachian	126,696	26,817	63,348	-36,531
58	Hyconeechee	117,993	40,034	58,997	-18,963
59	Neuse	85,764	58,300	42,882	15,418
60	East Albemarle	83,118	38,036	41,559	-3,523
61	Albemarle	73,468	24,953	36,734	-11,781
62	Fontana	68,135	45,537	34,068	11,470
63	BHM	64,865	20,654	32,433	-11,779
64	AMY	46,129	30,312	23,065	7,248
65	Pettigrew	42,083	20,629	21,042	-413
66	Nantahala	37,448	30,600	18,724	11,876
	Totals	1,633,483	724,197	816,742	-92,545
Municipal Libraries
67	High Point	73,092	67,000	36,546	30,454
68	Chapel Hill	43,423	27,315	21,712	5,604
69	Hickory (Elbert Ivey)	32,632	23,700	16,316	7,384
70	Roanoke Rapids	16,129	9,800	8,065	1,736
71	Mooresville	13,500	7,000	6,750	250
72	Southern Pines	9,860	14,751	4,930	9,821
73	Washington (Brown)	9,298	12,000	4,649	7,351
74	Kings Mt. (Mauney)	9,296	6,121	4,648	1,473
75	Farmville	4,442	11,354	2,221	9,133
	Totals	211,672	179,041	105,836	73,205
	North Carolina	7,323,085	3,240,878	3,661,543	-420,665