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Program attendance – Branches
NYPL Performance Reporting - Branch — NYPL Performance Indicators - Branch
NYPL's branch libraries were still restoring pandemic-era hours and programming through Fiscal 2022, so program attendance more than doubled once a full year of expanded service was in place by Fiscal 2023. Attendance kept climbing even through a citywide budget cut that briefly eliminated Sunday hours in late 2023 (funding was fully restored in mid-2024). The Fiscal 2026 figure shown here is a partial year total — the City's preliminary Fiscal 2026 report shows attendance for the first four months of the year actually running ahead of the same period in Fiscal 2025, so the dip likely reflects incomplete-year data rather than a real decline.
Researched July 16, 2026 — NYPL, Statement on Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Cuts (with BPL and QPL), CNN, "NYC public libraries have their funding restored, will reopen on Sundays", NYC Public Libraries, Fiscal 2025 Mayor's Management Report, NYC Public Libraries, Fiscal 2026 Preliminary Mayor's Management Report
* Year to date — this fiscal year isn't complete, so it's not compared against prior years in the target/trend status above.
View as table
| Fiscal year | Actual |
|---|---|
| FY22 | 505,595 branches |
| FY23 | 1,031,424 branches |
| FY24 | 1,216,843 branches |
| FY25 | 1,239,847 branches |
| FY26 (YTD) | 968,570 branches |
Why this is tracked
The New York Public Library was formed in 1895 by merging the financially struggling Astor and Lenox libraries with the Samuel Tilden trust, creating a research library — but it had no neighborhood branches of its own. In 1901, industrialist Andrew Carnegie offered $5.2 million (roughly $200 million today) to build 65 circulating branch libraries throughout the city, on the condition the City provide the building sites and commit to maintaining them. That gift created the branch library network NYPL still operates today, distinct from its non-circulating research libraries.
Celebrating Carnegie's Gift to New Yorkers — nypl.org, History of The New York Public Library — nypl.org
Source: Office of The Branch Libraries — via NYC Open Data: Mayor's Management Report, Agency Performance Indicators
Coverage shown: FY22–FY26, reported quarterly.
Definition: Total attendance of in-person or online programs conducted by library staff for the public (e.g., early and family literacy workshops, after-school programs, financial literacy, career services and technology classes, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and civics classes, book discussions, health and wellness programs, music and arts events, and outreach and school visits).