Minneapolis tops most literate cities poll

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Minneapolis edged past Seattle to claim the top spot as the most literate city in the United States, according to a new survey.

The poll which measures the cultural resources for reading in cities with a population of more than 250,000 awarded the number one position to the Minnesota city based on six key indicators -- newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, education and Internet resources.

St Paul, Minnesota also ranked in the top five.

Although education levels are improving in the United States, people are reading less, according to the poll.

"They're both pretty good in everything and that's how you end up getting a high score overall," John Miller, the president of Central Connecticut State University and the author of the annual ranking of America's Most Literate Cities, said in an interview.

This year, Minneapolis moved up one, reclaiming top spot in the overall ranking. Miller said St. Paul, Minnesota was the "rising star" after moving to third spot compared to 11th five years ago when the first poll was published.

Washington, D.C., and St. Louis, Missouri rounded out the top five sports followed by San Francisco, Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Boston.

Stockton, California placed last at 69th.

Miller cited dropping newspaper circulation figures, and the dwindling number of bookstores as factors that helped to pull rankings lower. But magazine publications increased per capita in 87 percent of the cities included in the study.