Secondary Data Analysis of Arts Council England’s English Public Libraries Activity Dataset 23/24
A secondary data analysis conducted by DCMS analysts of the ACE English Public Libraries Activity Dataset 2023/24, providing estimates of the national level of activity for libraries in England.
Applies to England
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About
In August 2025, Arts Council England (ACE) published the first annual English Public Libraries Activity Dataset, capturing activity within public libraries in England between April 2023 to March 2024. The dataset is collected from library services and contains metrics such as the number of active users, the number of and attendance at events, and information on loans and PC use.
This publication is a secondary data analysis conducted by DCMS analysts of the ACE English Public Libraries Activity Dataset 2023/24, providing estimates of the national level of activity for the following metrics:
- Active Members
- In-person events and attendees
- Physical book loans and physical audiobook loans
- Ebook loans and e-audiobook loans
- Physical visits
- Public PC availability and usage
This analysis is a secondary analysis of Arts Council data and therefore is not an official statistic and should not be treated as such.
Summary of findings
- In 23/24, we estimate that libraries across England had:
- 6m members
- 725,000 in-person events with 11m attendees
- 130m physical book loans and 2m physical audiobook loans
- 13m ebook loans and 12m e-audiobook loans
- 143m physical visits
- 25,000 public PCs and devices used for 14m hours
Methodology
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To estimate national levels of library activities, we calculated the levels of activity for the local authorities that responded to the ACE Activity dataset. For example, 127 local authorities sent Arts Council England the number of recorded Active Members within their library services. The total number of active members across responding authorities was 4.8 million.
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Once the totals for the participating local authorities were calculated, per capita figures were calculated based on the populations of the participating Local Authorities. This population data is derived from the ONS mid-year population estimate for 2023.
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We created national totals by multiplying these per capita figures by the national population figures.
As this data was collected by Arts Council England, DCMS has not conducted detailed quality assurance of the dataset or made major changes. One result was excluded from the “Number Of Hours Physical Public Pcs Library Issues Devices” in the national estimates due to a likely recorded error.
Additionally we only calculated national estimates for metrics where over 70% of upper tier local authorities in England responded (107 LAs or more), to ensure that the estimates are as representative as possible.
This is the first English Public Libraries Activity Dataset produced by ACE and therefore first analysis of this kind by DCMS. Comparability with other existing datasets is expected to have limited validity due to methodological differences. Instead, the English Public Libraries Activity Dataset provides a baseline against which future data collections using the same methodology may be compared. ACE is collecting 2024/25 activity data from library authorities in September 2025.