In September 2024 we revealed more than 180 council-run libraries had either closed or been handed over to volunteer groups in the UK since 2016.
Data on libraries that have closed, moved to a community organisation, or have fallen outside of a council’s statutory provision since 2016 were obtained through Arts Council England’s Basic library dataset for 2023. It is a comprehensive study of every known library in England, with details on its current and past operation.
From this data, we wanted to work out how many libraries formed part of local council statutory provision in 2016 and how that had changed by 2023. Some new facilities were not yet open by the time of 2016; we have captured those as well. As our study concentrates on accessible, statutory public libraries, we also filtered out archive facilities and prison libraries.
From this we have worked out a “net loss” of statutory libraries for each council since 2016 rather than simply detailing how many ‘closures’ there have been.
To explain and to put this in context, around 125 libraries have physically closed in England since 2016, while a further 100 have been handed over to various types of community organisation. However, there have been around 75 new libraries, or existing (but largely small) libraries adopted as part of the council’s statutory provision since 2016. Balancing these figures gives us a net loss of around 150 in England.
In order to gain details on the staffing losses, proposed closures and the number of sites to have reduced hours, we made Freedom of Information requests. to 221 councils responsible for library services across the UK. Around 80% of those gave a full response.
We asked councils to provide details of their library service headcounts in 2016 and 2023 so we could compare the two figures. We also asked them to state how many libraries had reduced opening hours since 2016.
In England we compared the locations of libraries to the government's Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) - a system which ranks areas according to income, living conditions and other poverty measures, and measured the proportions of libraries closed in each decile, to see if closures were evenly distributed across areas regardless of deprivation. We found communities in the most deprived deciles were four times more likely to have lost a publicly-funded library since 2016.
There were no equivalent Arts Council data for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Therefore, we have relied on data returned from local authorities in the three devolved nations from FOI requests. The data for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are less detailed but still contain details on the numbers of libraries lost, the numbers which have seen their opening hours reduced and the reductions in the numbers of libraries staff.
- Arts Council England: Basic Dataset for Libraries 2023 (source) - cached here
- Analysis: how each council’s library provision has changed since 2016
- Lookup data: library authorities to regions
- English Indices of Deprivation 2019: File 1: index of multiple deprivation - cached
- Analysis: proportion of libraries closed in each deprivation index decile
BBC stations that had the story in their running orders across radio or TV included: Solent, Cumbria, Humberside, Norfolk, Newcastle, Somerset, Wales, Leeds, Wales, Sussex, Northampton, Yorkshire, Berkshire, Gloucestershire, Shropshire, Kent, Suffolk, Cornwall, WM, CWR, Lincolnshire, Sheffield, Essex, York, Scotland, Cambridgeshire, Jersey, Stoke, Norfolk, Leicester York, Tees, Nottingham, Bristol, Oxford, Devon, Guernsey, Three Counties Radio, Wiltshire, Ulster, Jersey, Midlands Today, Spotlight, South Today, Look North, Hereford & Worcester, Lancashire, Merseyside, and North West TV, some of which are linked below. BBC Newsbeat and BBC Asian Network ran clips in their bulletins with an outside broadcast from Stoke. BBC Radio 2, 3, 4, and 6 ran bulletin clips of Michael Rosen
- BBC 5 Live Breakfast covered the story in its bulletins, spoke to author Michael Rosen on why libraries must be saved and did a two-way with the Shared Data Unit's Paul Lynch, which was also used on 5 Live and Radios 2, 3, 6 Music and BBC Sounds
- BBC Breakfast covered the story in a range of ways, including an outside broadcast, VT and interview with Michael Rosen which was published on X. A package from BBC Breakfast was also used by the BBC News Channel
- BBC Sounds: 'When you take away libraries you are hurting people'
- BBC Birmingham: Books changed my life, says former homeless man
- BBC Cornwall: Cornwall's libraries 'bucking UK trend' - council
- BBC Coventry & Warwickshire: Closing libraries is short-sighted, volunteers say
- BBC England: Author hits out at 'false economy' of library cuts
- BBC Gloucestershire: Libraries stay open thanks to army of volunteers; X: Today we're hearing about the county's libraries kept alive by volunteers
- BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight: The lost libraries from across the South
- BBC Liverpool: Libraries important for human contact, Children's Laureate says
- BBC London: Library closures a decimation - ex-Children's Laureate
- BBC Radio 4 Today: British author Lee Child - creator of action hero Jack Reacher - has described libraries as 'food banks for the brain' - listen to the interview from 2:23:37 in the broadcast
- BBC Radio Cornwall - James Churchfield: BBC looks at the future of libraries also on Sounds
- BBC Radio Cumbria: The fate of Ulverston's library
- BBC Radio Leeds: Yorkshire libraries closing is “devastating”
- BBC Radio Norfolk: Why are Norfolk libraries bucking the trend?
- BBC Shropshire: Library 'thriving' since town council take over
- BBC Radio Solent: Eleven Hampshire libraries saved by volunteers
- Alun Newman: Library Cuts
- BBC Radio York: How important are North Yorkshire's libraries?; X: 1,000 libraries have closed or reduced their hours since 2016
- BBC South Yorkshire: Libraries at 'heart of community' a decade after cuts
- Andover Advertiser: New data shows loss of almost 25 percent of Hampshire libraries
- Basingstoke Gazette: Data shows 25 per cent of Hampshire libraries have closed
- Coventry Live: Coventry loses four libraries in eight years amid 'horrifying' loss to public services
- Doncaster Free Press: Doncaster among few areas nationwide with more council-run libraries than 2016
- The Guardian: More than 180 UK public libraries closed or handed to volunteers since 2016, data shows
- GloucestershireLive: Library closures mapped as Gloucestershire bucks the trend
- Hampshire Chronicle: New data shows loss of almost a quarter of Hampshire libraries
- In Your Area: More than 130 public libraries have closed since 2016 - check your area
- ITV News Anglia: 440 library staff jobs cut in East since 2016, figures show, amid warnings of 'funding crisis'
- KentLive: The impact of the 'public library crisis' on Kent as UK-wide decimation continues
- LocalGov: Public libraries in ‘crisis’ amid cuts
- MyLondon: The 'horrifying' cuts to library services with almost 200 libraries closed since 2016
- Romford Recorder: Clashes over plan to close four Havering libraries in debate
- SomersetLive: Library closures mapped as Somerset sees mixed picture
- Sussex Bylines: Local libraries – so much more than just books
- St Helens Star: Libraries that were cut by St Helens remain closed
- The Telegraph: The crisis facing Britain’s brilliant librarians
- Warrington Guardian: Number of Warrington libraries have increased since 2016
- Warrington Midweek (in print): Number of Warrington libraries have increased since 2016
In 2016 the BBC England Data Unit revealed that libraries had lost a quarter of staff as hundreds closed.