Amazon.com Releases Most Well-Read Cities in America Ranking For 2015
If you enjoy lists/rankings, Amazon’s fifth annual Most Well-Read Cities in America ranking is now available online.
About the Ranking
The ranking was determined by compiling sales data of all book, magazine and newspaper sales in both print and Kindle format from April 2014 to April 2015, on a per capita basis in cities with more than 500,000 residents.
The Ranking
1. Seattle, Wash.
2. Portland, Ore.
3. Las Vegas, Nev.
4. Tucson, Ariz.
5. Washington, D.C.
6. Austin, Texas
7. San Francisco, Calif.
8. Albuquerque, N.M.
9. Denver, Colo.
10. Louisville, Ky.
11. Charlotte, N.C.
12. Baltimore, Md.
13. San Diego, Calif.
14. Houston, Tx.
15. Indianapolis, Ind.
16. San Jose, Calif.
17. Jacksonville, Fla.
18. San Antonio, Texas
19. Nashville, Tenn.
20. Chicago, Ill.
Fast Facts From the List
- Seattle, Wash., the home of Amazon headquarters, not only purchased the most books overall but also purchased the most Kindle books, magazines, and newspapers.
- Washington, D.C. residents, ranked #5 overall on the list, prefer the print book, outranking Seattle as the city with the most purchases of print books.
- California is for readers with three cities making the top 20 list this year: San Francisco, San Diego, and San Jose.
- Las Vegas is for lovers—their residents purchased the most romance titles.
- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn was the top-selling title in seven of the top 20 cities: Houston, Texas; Austin, Texas; Charlotte, N.C.; Tucson, Ariz., Louisville, Ky.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Baltimore, Md.
Direct to Amazon’s News Release, Rankings
See Also: Amazon.com Releases 4th Annual “Most Well-Read” Cities List, Knoxville, TN Purchases Most Kindle Books (May 20, 2014)
More Rankings
Filed under: Data Files, News

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com. Gary is also the co-founder of infoDJ an innovation research consultancy supporting corporate product and business model teams with just-in-time fact and insight finding.