There’s Hope: America’s Libraries Outnumber McDonald’s & Starbucks

You know the saying “There’s a Starbucks on every corner”? Turns out there might be more free books on city blocks than those pricy coffees.

America is home to about 17,000 public libraries, according to statistician Justin Grimes with the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences. Grimes plotted library locations on Google Maps to show their density and outreach. In the shadow of free knowledge, Starbucks operates about 11,000 stores nationwide, and McDonald’s slings burgers in about 14,000. Still, we’d  be curious to find out the average number of people visiting libraries compared to the number of people visiting McDonald’s and Starbucks locations within a given period. We have a feeling that might skew the study’s initial perspective a bit. Sorry, guys.

H/T Galleycat + PicThx Atlantic Cities