Learn about the types of people who become librarians. This page goes into detail about the employment, gender, and ethnic ratios of the workplace.
Employment Type Mix, 2024
52% of librarians work in full-time roles while 48% work part-time.
Gender Mix By Career Interest, 2024
This graph shows the distribution of females and males that are interested in becoming a librarian. Four or five star ratings on CareerExplorer indicate interest.
More women than men are interested in becoming librarians at a ratio of 1.59 to 1.
Actual Gender Mix, 2024
80% of librarians are female and 20% are male.
Gender Bias, 2024
This is one of the most compelling statistics we collect. Gender bias shows the difference between gender interest in being a librarian and the actual gender mix of people in the career.
If there is a significant difference, then it means there is a gender imbalance between those interested in becoming a librarian and those who end up becoming one.
In this case there are more men interested in becoming a librarian than those actually working as one. It is hard to pinpoint the exact reasons why, but there are likely various forces at play, from changing interests over time to societal norms and biases.
Ethnic Mix, 2019
The largest ethnic group of librarians are White, making up 71% of the population. The next highest segments are Black or African American and Other, making up 7% and 6% respectively.