Library Cardholders as a Share of Population: Spruce Grove, Stony Plain and Parkland County vs Leduc, Fort Saskatchewan and Alberta

Library cardholders as a percent of each board's service population. Stony Plain's share ran between 51% and 62% from 2015 to 2021 and fell to 30% in 2022; Spruce Grove's stayed between 13% and 19%, Parkland County's board's at most 5%, and Alberta's boards together between 34% and 41%. A board that clears expired cards drops in one year, so a sudden fall can be bookkeeping, not people leaving. Leduc and Fort Saskatchewan are Edmonton-region cities of a similar size; the Alberta line is every municipal library board together (Calgary and Edmonton weigh most). From each board's annual report to Alberta Municipal Affairs, 2015 to 2022 (the newest year published). Per person = the board's figure over its own service population, and a board's users can live outside it, so a town library that serves the farms around it reads busier per person and Parkland County's own board, with small branches, reads quieter. 2020 and 2021 were pandemic years.