From Rick Bojar:

The first group of cities includes all US cities with a population of 1,000,000 or more.The second group, on the other hand, does NOT include all cities of population between 916,852and 599,351.It has been claimed that Philadelphia has fewer inhabitants per library than any other comparable city. If by “comparable” we mean having a population over 1,000,000, the claim istrue, but not by all that much. Phoenix, with its 103,484 people per library is much more an outlier than Philadelphia, with its 26,845—the average is 43,542.Philadelphia and Phoenix may be comparable in the number of inhabitants, but arecomparable in almost no other way. In the second group of cities, I have listed a few which aremore comparable to Philadelphia in other respects. Of these, the two most comparable toPhiladelphia are probably Baltimore and Boston. Not too surprisingly, these two cities are closestto Philadelphia in the number of inhabitants per library, too.

HOW MANY BRANCH LIBRARIES?

CityPopulation# LibrariesPop./Library New York, NY8,274,55721139,216 New York is divided into five boroughs. Three (Manhattan, Bronx, Staten Island)are served by the New York Public Library. Each of the remaining two has alibrary system of its own—the Brooklyn Public Library and the Queens Public Library. New York PL3, 476, 1698043,452Brooklyn PL2,528,0506638,304Queens PL2,270,3386534,928Los Angeles, CA3,834,3407253,255Chicago, IL2,836,6587836,367Houston, TX2,208,1803759,681Phoenix, AZ1,552,25915 103,484