The Largest Libraries in the World

Every working day, about 15,000 items reach the Library of Congress in Washington, and it adds more than 10,000 of them to its collection. That intake has made it the largest library in the world by number of items: about 181 million in 2025. The British Library in London is second, with over 170 million. No other library reports more than about 60 million.

Those two stand apart. Below them, about ten libraries report between 40 and 60 million items each, and their order depends on what each one decides to count.

Why is “the largest library” so hard to pin down?

Because there is no agreed unit. A book is an item, but so is a patent, a newspaper issue, a photograph, a sheet of music or a box of archival records. The British Library says so itself: its annual report gives over 170 million items, then adds that a definitive size cannot be stated, because nobody agrees on what a single item is.

About 60 million of the British Library’s items are patents and about 60 million are newspapers, together some 120 million of its 170 million. Of the Library of Congress’s 178 million items in 2023, about 78.5 million were manuscripts and 15.7 million photographs. The National Library of France counts 16 million prints and photographs, and even coins.

About a third of the German National Library’s 53 million items are online publications. Library and Archives Canada is a national library and a national archive in one, so its count mixes both.

The largest libraries in the world, by collection

Each figure is the library’s own, with the date it refers to. Below the first two rows, the totals sit within about 18 million of each other and would reshuffle under other counting rules, so we do not number them.

Some of these dates matter. The German National Library reported more than 57 million works by August 2026. The New York Public Library has published no newer total that we could find than its 2018 figure, so its place today is unknown.

Is the British Library bigger than the Library of Congress?

Not on the figures both publish. The British Library reports over 170 million items and the Library of Congress about 181 million. The British Library calls itself “one of the largest in the world” and does not claim first place in its own reports.

The idea that London leads comes from a popular online list, which puts the British Library first with “200 million+”, a figure taken from a 2023 blog post rather than from the library’s accounts.

Which library has the most books?

Count books alone and the order changes. The Library of Congress still leads, with about 25.8 million catalogued books in 2023, or about 42 million with other printed items such as bound newspapers and pamphlets.

Behind it comes a group at about 20 million books each: the National Library of China (20.4 million), the Russian State Library (20.3 million books and pamphlets), Library and Archives Canada and Harvard Library. The British Library, second by items, drops behind all of them with about 13.5 million printed books and e-books.

Why do online lists of the largest libraries disagree?

Because they copy each other, and the most copied list mixes measures. Besides the British Library’s 200 million, three errors recur:

• Turkey’s Nation’s Library at 141.7 million. That number for the library in Ankara includes the holdings of the State Archives. Its printed collection is about 5.2 million items.
• The Russian State Library at 128.6 million. This adds a “notional” 77.9 million for a legal-deposit archive the library took over. Its working collection is 50 million.
• The National Library of Australia at 21 billion. The figure counts captures from a web archive, which cannot be compared with physical items.

Several other rows in such lists are ten years old or more. Size claims have always been slippery: ancient writers gave the Library of Alexandria anything from 40,000 to 700,000 rolls.

The largest library in the US, Europe and Asia

In the United States, the Library of Congress leads by any measure. The New York Public Library came second on the latest figures available, from 2016 to 2018. By volumes, an American Library Association table from 2016–17 data put them at 39.3 and 36.3 million, ahead of Boston Public Library (31.9 million) and Harvard (20.4 million).

In Europe, the British Library leads by items. By books, the Russian State Library in Moscow is ahead, followed by the National Library of Russia in St Petersburg, then the National Library of France and the British Library.

In Asia, the National Library of China in Beijing holds the most books, 20.4 million. By total items, Shanghai Library (over 58 million, 2023) and Japan’s National Diet Library (48.7 million, 2025) report slightly more than its 46.1 million.

The largest public and university libraries

“Largest public library system” depends on the measure too. The New York Public Library calls itself the largest public library system in the United States, with about 55.7 million items and 92 locations in 2018. Toronto Public Library, the largest system in Canada, has about 100 branches and 10.5 million items (2023). Shanghai Library, a city library rather than a national one, reports the largest collection of any public library, over 58 million.

Among universities, Harvard Library describes itself as the world’s largest academic library, with over 20 million physical and digital items. American counts back that up: in 2015–16 it held more volumes than any other US university. Multi-campus systems such as the University of California report larger totals, but they are groups of libraries, not one. In Britain, the Bodleian Libraries at Oxford together hold over 13 million printed items.

What is the largest library building in the world?

There is no reliable answer, because floor-area figures mix gross area, usable area and whole sites.

The usual claim belongs to the James Madison Memorial Building in Washington, opened in 1980 as part of the Library of Congress. It has 2.1 million gross square feet, about 195,000 square metres, and the Architect of the Capitol, the office that maintains it, calls it the largest library structure in the world. The National Library of France’s François-Mitterrand site in Paris gives 200,000 square metres as the total surface of the site. The two are of the same order.

One record is clear. Guinness World Records lists Beijing City Library as having the largest library hall, 21,809 square metres, set in December 2023. That is a single reading hall, not the largest building or collection.

Famous modern buildings are often smaller than their reputation. Tianjin Binhai Library, hailed in lifestyle media as the largest library in the world, covers 33,700 square metres with shelf space for 1.2 million books. Mexico City’s Vasconcelos Library, nicknamed the Megabiblioteca, covers 38,000. Age is another way to rank libraries, and we look at it in the oldest library in the world.

Sources and further reading

The British Library’s Annual Report and Accounts 2025/26 gives its total and explains why no definitive count is possible. The Library of Congress states its 181 million items in its FY2025 Agency Financial Report. The American Library Association’s fact sheet on volumes held compares US libraries on one measure. The Architect of the Capitol describes the Madison Building, and Guinness World Records lists the largest library hall.