State rankings
Banned Books by State
Florida has the highest Total District-Level Book Bans in 2025 (8,837), followed by Iowa (3,798) and Texas (3,745). Vermont has the lowest (1).
CultureLaw44 states · 4 metricsUpdated Dec 13, 2025Original page
6 sources
- Banned in the USA: The Mounting Pressure to Censor - Pen America
- Banned in the USA: Where are the book bans happening? - Brooklyn Daily Eagle
- Number of books banned in school classrooms and libraries in the United States from July 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022, by state - Statista
- Banned in the USA: The Growing Movement to Censor Books in Schools - Pen America
- Banned in the USA: Rising School Book Bans Threaten Free Expression and Students’ First Amendment Rights (April 2022) - Pen America
- Banned Book List 2022-2021 - PEN America
Year 202544 of 51 states
Total District-Level Book Bans, 2025
Darker means higher. Click a place to highlight it.
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All 44 ranked
Highest first.
Distribution Median and middle halfThe median is the middle value: half of places are above it, half below. The middle half is the range holding the central 50% of places.More in the glossary →
Each dot is one state; the lines mark the median and the middle half.
Median
44
Middle half 6 – 164
Average
507
44 states
Highest
8,837
Florida
Lowest
1
Vermont
Data
Click a column to sort, a row to highlight that place on the charts.
44 states · # = rank by Total District-Level Book Bans
| # | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Florida | 8,837 | 2,304 | — | — |
| 2 |  Iowa | 3,798 | 113 | — | — |
| 3 |  Texas | 3,745 | 1,781 | — | — |
| 4 |  Tennessee | 2,016 | 1,622 | — | — |
| 5 |  Pennsylvania | 737 | 73 | — | — |
| 6 |  Wisconsin | 482 | 2 | — | — |
| 7 |  Missouri | 419 | 2 | — | — |
| 8 |  Utah | 351 | 26 | 18 | A Court of Frost and Starlight, A Court of Mist and Fury+12 |
| 9 |  Virginia | 312 | 97 | — | — |
| 10 |  Idaho | 213 | 150 | — | — |
| 11 |  South Carolina | 197 | 5 | 22 | A Court of Frost and Starlight, A Court of Mist and Fury+13 |
| 12 |  Georgia | 153 | 43 | — | — |
| 13 |  North Carolina | 137 | 2 | — | — |
| 14 |  Kentucky | 103 | — | — | — |
| 15 |  Maine | 97 | — | — | — |
| 16 |  New York | 84 | — | — | — |
| 17 |  Michigan | 80 | — | — | — |
| 18 |  Maryland | 71 | 6 | — | — |
| 19 |  Wyoming | 65 | 8 | — | — |
| 20 |  Oregon | 61 | 4 | — | — |
| 21 |  Alaska | 57 | — | — | — |
| 22 |  Oklahoma | 45 | — | — | — |
| 23 |  Montana | 43 | — | — | — |
| 24 |  Kansas | 38 | 1 | — | — |
| 25 |  Colorado | 28 | 20 | — | — |
| 26 |  North Dakota | 27 | — | — | — |
| 27 |  Indiana | 24 | 2 | — | — |
| 28 |  Mississippi | 22 | — | — | — |
| 29 |  Minnesota | 19 | 16 | — | — |
| 30 |  Illinois | 7 | — | — | — |
| 30 |  Ohio | 7 | — | — | — |
| 30 |  South Dakota | 7 | — | — | — |
| 33 |  New Jersey | 6 | — | — | — |
| 33 |  Nebraska | 6 | — | — | — |
| 35 |  Washington | 5 | — | — | — |
| 35 |  Arkansas | 5 | — | — | — |
| 37 |  California | 3 | — | — | — |
| 38 |  Arizona | 2 | 2 | — | — |
| 38 |  Massachusetts | 2 | — | — | — |
| 38 |  West Virginia | 2 | — | — | — |
| 38 |  New Hampshire | 2 | 1 | — | — |
| 42 |  Louisiana | 1 | — | — | — |
| 42 |  Rhode Island | 1 | — | — | — |
| 42 |  Vermont | 1 | — | — | — |
What correlates with Total District-Level Book Bans (2025)?
Pearson r against 2,087 other state metrics sharing at least 27 states. Correlation is not causation.
Higher together
Places that have a higher Total District-Level Book Bans tend to score higher on these
Opposite directions
Places that have a higher Total District-Level Book Bans tend to score lower on these
Quick answers
- Which state has the highest Total District-Level Book Bans?
- Florida has the highest Total District-Level Book Bans in 2025, at 8,837, followed by Iowa (3,798) and Texas (3,745).
- Which state has the lowest Total District-Level Book Bans?
- Vermont has the lowest Total District-Level Book Bans in 2025, at 1.
- What is the median Total District-Level Book Bans across US states?
- The median is 44 across the 44 US states with data in 2025.
- Where does this banned books by state data come from?
- Rankodex compiles it from World Population Review and the primary sources it cites: Banned in the USA: The Mounting Pressure to Censor - Pen America; Banned in the USA: Where are the book bans happening? - Brooklyn Daily Eagle; Number of books banned in school classrooms and libraries in the United States from July 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022, by state - Statista; Banned in the USA: The Growing Movement to Censor Books in Schools - Pen America.