New: the 2025–26 analysis. 11,982 recorded instances in 23 states, a labelled state map, rates and model results. Open the current analysis → This page continues to document the July 2021–June 2025 study and the verification of the earlier report.
PUBLISHED-SUMMARY ANALYSIS / JULY 2021–JUNE 2025

Where book bans
are concentrated.

A geographic view of reported school book restrictions, their scale over time, and the questions the evidence leaves open.

Based on the revised research project. Website revision: October 4, 2026. The study window ends in June 2025.

2024–20256,870

reported ban instances

FOUR SCHOOL YEARS22,810

instances since July 2021

THREE STATES83.1%

of the 2024–2025 total

YEAR-OVER-YEAR−31.6%

change from the prior peak

Counts: PEN America, 2025 report ↗. Percentages recalculated from the published totals.

01 / GEOGRAPHY

Three states account for 5,707 instances.

2024–2025

Florida, Texas and Tennessee hold most of the reported total. This map displays the individual state values available in the project’s summary extract.

United States map highlighting Florida with 2,304 instances, Texas with 1,781 and Tennessee with 1,622. Other states have no individual count in this summary extract.
Individual count not supplied in this extract ≠ zero bans
Alaska and Hawaii shown as insets. Map uses the boundaries retained in the QGIS project.
↳

What the map cannot establish. These are counts, not enrollment-adjusted rates. Geographic concentration alone does not explain why bans occurred.

Open the geographic data table
Published 2024–2025 breakdown; denominator 6,870
Geography or systemInstancesShareCoverage
Florida2,30433.5%Individual state
Texas1,78125.9%Individual state
Tennessee1,62223.6%Individual state
DoDEA5908.6%School system
Other reported states5738.3%Combined remainder
Download geographic CSV ↓

02 / OVER TIME

A decline from the peak.
A higher level than 2021–2022.

The latest school-year count fell by 3,176 instances. It was still 171.3% above the first year in this series.

Annual activity, not a remaining balance.

These totals do not tell us how many previously restricted books were later returned.

Annual instances: 2,532 in 2021–2022; 3,362 in 2022–2023; 10,046 in 2023–2024; 6,870 in 2024–2025.
Newly recorded restrictions in each school year. Download CSV ↓
Open annual totals and changes
School yearInstancesYear-over-year
2021–20222,532Baseline
2022–20233,362+32.8%
2023–202410,046+198.8%
2024–20256,870−31.6%

NEW / RECONSTRUCTED STATE COMPARISON

Population changes the ranking.

2022–2023

The retained PEN workbook contains 3,362 entries across 33 states. Joining it to Census population data produces a different ranking: Florida leads by count; Utah leads per million residents.

Counting rule clarified: one Texas entry has a blank title. Retaining it gives 3,362 entries nationally and 625 in Texas; counting only entries with titles gives 3,361 and 624. The website uses the retained-entry count. The workbook’s two sheets show the same events and are not added together.
2022–2023 rate map: Utah 83.12, Florida 63.21 and Missouri 53.90 recorded entries per million residents. Gray indicates no entries in the retained index.
State rates use July 2022 total residents. Alaska and Hawaii are insets. These are not rates per student or measures of individual risk.
Top eight states by count compared with the top eight by resident population rate. Utah rises from fourth by count to first by rate.
Each panel selects its own eight highest states. Complete values for all 50 states are in the table below.

Explore all 50 states

50 states shown

Event window: 2022–2023 · Population: 2022 · Political shares: 2017 · Religion: 2014
StateEntriesResidentsPer millionDem./lean Dem.Rep./lean Rep.Evangelical ProtestantLargest religious category, ties retainedIndex status
Alabama05,074,2960.0035%50%49%EvangelicalNo entries in retained index
Alaska0733,5830.0031%52%22%UnaffiliatedNo entries in retained index
Arizona07,359,1970.0040%42%26%UnaffiliatedNo entries in retained index
Arkansas43,045,6371.3136%45%46%EvangelicalRecorded
California139,029,3420.0351%30%20%CatholicRecorded
Colorado85,839,9261.3746%37%26%UnaffiliatedRecorded
Connecticut03,626,2050.0051%32%13%CatholicNo entries in retained index
Delaware01,018,3960.0045%33%15%UnaffiliatedNo entries in retained index
Florida1,40622,244,82363.2142%39%24%Evangelical; UnaffiliatedRecorded
Georgia410,912,8760.3742%40%38%EvangelicalRecorded
Hawaii01,440,1960.0050%28%25%UnaffiliatedNo entries in retained index
Idaho251,939,03312.8931%53%21%UnaffiliatedRecorded
Illinois012,582,0320.0050%33%20%CatholicNo entries in retained index
Indiana36,833,0370.4441%43%31%EvangelicalRecorded
Iowa63,200,5171.8742%42%28%MainlineRecorded
Kansas72,937,1502.3834%48%31%EvangelicalRecorded
Kentucky34,512,3100.6641%45%49%EvangelicalRecorded
Louisiana04,590,2410.0040%43%27%EvangelicalNo entries in retained index
Maine131,385,3409.3847%39%14%UnaffiliatedRecorded
Maryland06,164,6600.0056%28%18%UnaffiliatedNo entries in retained index
Massachusetts16,981,9740.1457%26%9%CatholicRecorded
Michigan3910,034,1133.8945%38%25%EvangelicalRecorded
Minnesota15,717,1840.1747%37%19%MainlineRecorded
Mississippi02,940,0570.0038%45%41%EvangelicalNo entries in retained index
Missouri3336,177,95753.9038%45%36%EvangelicalRecorded
Montana01,122,8670.0037%51%28%UnaffiliatedNo entries in retained index
Nebraska61,967,9233.0535%50%25%EvangelicalRecorded
Nevada03,177,7720.0042%39%20%UnaffiliatedNo entries in retained index
New Hampshire11,395,2310.7243%40%13%UnaffiliatedRecorded
New Jersey39,261,6990.3248%33%13%CatholicRecorded
New Mexico02,113,3440.0048%34%23%CatholicNo entries in retained index
New York619,677,1510.3052%29%10%CatholicRecorded
North Carolina5810,698,9735.4244%39%35%EvangelicalRecorded
North Dakota27779,26134.6528%56%22%MainlineRecorded
Ohio011,756,0580.0041%42%29%EvangelicalNo entries in retained index
Oklahoma24,019,8000.5035%49%47%EvangelicalRecorded
Oregon384,240,1378.9649%36%29%UnaffiliatedRecorded
Pennsylvania18612,972,00814.3446%41%19%CatholicRecorded
Rhode Island01,093,7340.0048%27%14%CatholicNo entries in retained index
South Carolina1275,282,63424.0437%47%35%EvangelicalRecorded
South Dakota2909,8242.2035%52%25%MainlineRecorded
Tennessee117,051,3391.5635%47%52%EvangelicalRecorded
Texas62530,029,57220.8138%41%31%EvangelicalRecorded
Utah2813,380,80083.1229%56%7%MormonRecorded
Vermont0647,0640.0052%30%11%UnaffiliatedNo entries in retained index
Virginia758,683,6198.6445%38%30%EvangelicalRecorded
Washington07,785,7860.0049%34%25%UnaffiliatedNo entries in retained index
West Virginia21,775,1561.1340%44%39%EvangelicalRecorded
Wisconsin435,892,5397.3043%41%22%Catholic; UnaffiliatedRecorded
Wyoming15581,38125.8027%56%27%EvangelicalRecorded

Political and religious associations depend on the measure

All 50 states; descriptive correlations, with zero recorded entries retained
State characteristicOutcomePearson rSpearman ρ
Republican minus Democratic share (2017)Recorded entries0.0720.295
Republican minus Democratic share (2017)Entries per million residents0.3890.417
Evangelical Protestant share (2014)Recorded entries-0.0110.179
Evangelical Protestant share (2014)Entries per million residents-0.1180.156

The evangelical-share correlation is close to zero for raw counts and negative for population rates using Pearson’s measure; rank correlations are positive. These results do not establish religion as a cause or a reliable predictor of bans. The download also reports results for the 33 states with entries and after excluding Florida and Texas.

Different source years. Gallup’s 2017 political shares and Pew’s 2014 religious shares predate the ban records. No causal model or new forecast was fitted, and survey uncertainty is not incorporated in these descriptive correlations. State averages do not identify individual challengers.

Sources: Census 2022 population CSV · Gallup 2017 state table · Pew 2014 survey, printed pages 143–146 · Acquisition records · Reconstruction source checksums.

03 / INSTITUTIONS & COMMUNITY RESPONSE

70 of 87 districts

Public objections were documented.

That is 80.5% of affected districts. Opposition was common; its presence does not establish that a restriction was reversed.

RESEARCH QUESTION 3What happened when a district reviewed a challenged book with input from librarians and local residents?

2,520 title-level cases

Policy pressure had several forms.

Within this policy-pressure subset, PEN attributed 3% to direct removal requirements and 97% to anticipated noncompliance.

The next analysis needs dates for enactment, guidance, enforcement threats and injunctions. A single “law exists” indicator would miss those distinctions.

The title-level subset has a different scope from the headline total.

Source: PEN America’s report and methodology ↗

04 / EARLIER STUDY & DATA AVAILABILITY

What the earlier project measured.

The original report combined 2021–2022 PEN records with state-level population, political affiliation, religious affiliation and Moms for Liberty chapter counts. These describe states and organizations; they do not identify the characteristics of individual people who challenged books.

Variables and profiles found in the supplied earlier report
Variable or profileEvidence in the reportAvailability for this website
PopulationState-level Census 2022 estimatesCensus 2022 total-resident file recovered; 50-state rates completed
Political affiliationState party-affiliation labels; prose cites Gallup 2017Gallup 2017 percentages reconstructed for all 50 states; appendix label provenance remains unresolved
Religious affiliationState-level religious-preference table and figuresPew 2014 percentages recovered for all 50 states; rounded-category ties preserved
Organizational activityMoms for Liberty chapter counts used in the original modelCode and printed outputs in the report; original model-input CSV needed
Sexuality and genderMentioned in a research questionAwaiting survey data, questionnaire and codebook; no respondent results found in this report
Age rangeNo survey results located in the supplied reportAwaiting the original survey source
HISTORICAL / UNVALIDATED

The Ohio forecast in the original output

The printed model output gives Ohio 131.830787 predicted bans (about 132) for 2022–2023. This was a linear regression using Moms for Liberty chapter counts, not a forecast fitted for the updated website.

The written conclusion instead names Idaho, although its printed prediction is negative. That inconsistency remains unresolved. Neither result establishes which state would be the next to experience a major increase.

The supplied report does not demonstrate out-of-sample validation. Negative predictions are preserved in the historical CSV for audit purposes, not treated as plausible counts.

Download the transcribed historical output ↓
SURVEY SOURCE NEEDED

Respondent profiles are not yet available

The survey dataset and questionnaire are needed to establish whose sexuality, gender, age range, religion and political affiliation were measured, how the questions were asked and which responses are missing.

No individual characteristics have been inferred from state-level figures. Any later website profile will use verified aggregate survey results and an appropriate disclosure review.

Record-count difference: the earlier report describes 2,535 PEN rows; the published annual series on this site uses 2,532 instances. These counts have different provenance and have not been reconciled.

Read the earlier report (DOCX) ↓

Source: supplied Banned Books.docx, methods, Appendix (Third Layer), printed model output and conclusion. Reviewed September 29, 2026. The original report is preserved as supplied; its interpretations are not adopted as validated findings.

04A / HISTORICAL FORECAST REVIEW

Ohio and the full 50-state forecast.

These figures reproduce the earlier model’s predictions for 2022–2023. They are historical, unvalidated estimates. The observed comparison counts entries in PEN’s index for that same school year.

18 of the 50 predictions are negative.

Negative outputs are invalid as ban counts. They are hatched on the map and marked in the chart and table, rather than changed to zero. This is a review of the old model, not a new forecast.

Ohio historical 2022–2023 prediction: 131.8 bans. PEN index: zero recorded Ohio entries, which does not establish that no bans occurred.
Ohio’s historical estimate was about 132. PEN’s complete 2022–2023 index contains no Ohio entries. The extract reconciles to 3,362 entries across 33 states. This retrospective comparison does not establish forecast validity.
Historical 2022–2023 forecasts for all 50 states. Ohio is outlined. Eighteen states have negative predictions and are hatched as invalid counts.
Map colors show the magnitude of nonnegative historical predictions. Hatching marks negative outputs. Alaska and Hawaii use separate inset scales. Download map (SVG) ↓

Ohio · 2022–2023

Historical prediction131.8Unvalidated model estimate
PEN index entries0No records in the index; not proof of no bans

PEN reporting is incomplete. The two measures are not interchangeable. Zero index entries means no cases were recorded for that state in this file.

View the all-state prediction chart
Ranked chart of all 50 historical predictions. Florida has the largest output, 488.5; Ohio is 131.8. Negative outputs remain visible as model limitations.
Download all-state chart (SVG) ↓
View all 50 predictions and recorded counts
2022–2023 historical predictions and PEN index entries. Prediction values rounded to one decimal.
StateHistorical predictionPEN entriesInterpretation
Alabama12.90Unvalidated historical estimate. No index records; not proof of no bans.
Alaska-4.10Negative prediction: invalid count. No index records; not proof of no bans.
Arizona-4.10Negative prediction: invalid count. No index records; not proof of no bans.
Arkansas63.94Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
California199.81Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Colorado63.98Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Connecticut12.90Unvalidated historical estimate. No index records; not proof of no bans.
Delaware-4.10Negative prediction: invalid count. No index records; not proof of no bans.
Florida488.51,406Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Georgia12.94Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Hawaii12.90Unvalidated historical estimate. No index records; not proof of no bans.
Idaho-21.025Negative prediction: invalid count. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Illinois46.90Unvalidated historical estimate. No index records; not proof of no bans.
Indiana97.93Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Iowa80.96Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Kansas-4.17Negative prediction: invalid count. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Kentucky-21.03Negative prediction: invalid count. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Louisiana-4.10Negative prediction: invalid count. No index records; not proof of no bans.
Maine-21.013Negative prediction: invalid count. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Maryland148.80Unvalidated historical estimate. No index records; not proof of no bans.
Massachusetts12.91Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Michigan199.839Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Minnesota80.91Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Mississippi-4.10Negative prediction: invalid count. No index records; not proof of no bans.
Missouri29.9333Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Montana-4.10Negative prediction: invalid count. No index records; not proof of no bans.
Nebraska-4.16Negative prediction: invalid count. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Nevada-21.00Negative prediction: invalid count. No index records; not proof of no bans.
New Hampshire12.91Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
New Jersey80.93Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
New Mexico-4.10Negative prediction: invalid count. No index records; not proof of no bans.
New York199.86Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
North Carolina284.758Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
North Dakota-4.127Negative prediction: invalid count. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Ohio131.80Unvalidated historical estimate. No index records; not proof of no bans.
Oklahoma12.92Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Oregon12.938Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Pennsylvania420.6186Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Rhode Island-21.00Negative prediction: invalid count. No index records; not proof of no bans.
South Carolina216.8127Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
South Dakota29.92Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Tennessee97.911Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Texas131.8625Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Utah-4.1281Negative prediction: invalid count. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Vermont-21.00Negative prediction: invalid count. No index records; not proof of no bans.
Virginia148.875Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Washington131.80Unvalidated historical estimate. No index records; not proof of no bans.
West Virginia-21.02Negative prediction: invalid count. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Wisconsin131.843Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.
Wyoming29.915Unvalidated historical estimate. Recorded instances, not unique titles.

Predictions: original report. Recorded entries: PEN’s 2022–2023 index ↗, linked from its 2023 report ↗. Retrieved September 29, 2026. Aggregation method and source checksum.

04B / HISTORICAL AFFILIATIONS

Religious and political categories from the earlier report.

The original five-state chart classified four states as Evangelical Protestant and Pennsylvania as Catholic. Those labels describe state-level affiliation categories in the earlier input table. They do not identify who challenged books.

Historical 2021–2022 counts: Texas 801, Florida 566, Pennsylvania 458, Tennessee 349, Oklahoma 43. The original chart labels Pennsylvania Catholic and the other four states Evangelical Protestant.
Historical transcription from the supplied report. Bar lengths count bans; colors show the largest affiliation category selected by the original code. This is the source figure’s five-state selection, not an independently reconstructed ranking.
Labels as printed in the original appendix; input source and survey dates still need verification
StatePrinted 2021–2022 bansReligious categoryParty label
Texas801Evangelical ProtestantDemocrat
Florida566Evangelical ProtestantDemocrat
Pennsylvania458CatholicDemocrat
Tennessee349Evangelical ProtestantRepublican
Oklahoma43Evangelical ProtestantRepublican
Recovered-source differences. Gallup 2017 reports Texas at 38% Democrat/lean Democrat and 41% Republican/lean Republican. The original chart’s Democrat label does not match that source. Pew 2014 gives Florida 24% evangelical Protestant and 24% unaffiliated: a tie that the original first-maximum rule conceals. The printed labels in this section are historical transcriptions, not the reconstructed classifications.

How the labels were assigned

The religious code selected the largest affiliation share in each state. Evangelical, Mainline and Historically Black Protestant were separate categories, and the table also included unaffiliated residents. A largest category need not be a majority.

The political code compared Republican/lean Rep. and Democrat/lean Dem. shares. The larger share supplied the label. The report’s prose cites Gallup 2017, but the appendix does not establish the source and survey year of partisan.xlsx. The labels above are preserved as historical output; they are not current political classifications or election results.

Gender, sexual orientation and age still need a source

The supplied report mentions sexuality and gender in a research question, but no respondent results were located. No age-range results were found. The original survey, questionnaire and codebook are needed to establish whether these fields describe respondents, challengers, authors or book content. The website does not substitute community characteristics for personal responses.

Interpretation: four Evangelical Protestant labels in a selected five-state figure do not establish a national association, a cause of bans or a predictive trait. The new 50-state comparison above uses recovered Gallup and Pew percentages, separately from these historical labels.

Source: supplied Banned Books.docx, appendix code, printed party table and combined five-state chart. Reviewed September 29, 2026.

GDELT / NEWS VALIDATION · JULY 2022–JUNE 2023

News coverage needs a district check.

The preserved annual export contains 15,767 news records and 15,730 distinct URLs. A district-name screen selected 1,054 candidate records. A fixed sample of 36 was reviewed, with three records from each month.

SAMPLE: 36 NEWS RECORDS13

school-book topic supported

OTHER COVERAGE4

public-library or unrelated activity

UNRESOLVED19

insufficient article evidence

DISTRICT MATCHES9

records support an original candidate

Relevant news is not a verified ban event.

The original 32 title checks produced 12 title–district correspondences. The October 3 follow-up adds the Bible–Davis match and verifies a June 20, 2023 board vote to reinstate it. The removal and actual reshelving dates remain unresolved; no restriction duration is calculated. The October 4 workbook audit corrected three month descriptions in the report. Indian River is March, Miami-Dade is March, and Davis is May 2023. The underlying CSV dates were already correct. The Indian River month conflict is withdrawn; exact onset and remaining date/stage questions still need evidence. These sample counts are not an estimate of national accuracy or the number of bans.

Names can mislead: a Knox County story concerns a Maine school district, and an NBC San Diego report concerns Indian River County, Florida. Other keyword matches describe late-fine removal or a library play activity.

RQ3: What happened when a district reviewed a challenged book with input from librarians and local residents?

The Davis minutes document public comments and a unanimous reinstatement vote. They do not establish that opposition caused the decision. Reports distinguish proposals, reviews, retained books and removals. The next analysis needs verified access histories before comparing restriction duration or reversal.

Read the date corrections · Open the independent-review form

Review version 13: October 4, 2026. All 3,362 extracted PEN rows were checked against workbook cells. Independent human review remains pending. One of the 20 previously unresolved original articles was recovered; 19 remain unresolved. The earlier 62,258-record pilot is a separate collection and is not added to this annual extract. No additional BigQuery job was run for this validation.

05 / METHODS & STATUS

What is complete. What still needs data.

COMPLETED

Published-summary analysis

  • Annual changes and geographic shares recalculated.
  • Geographic categories reconcile to 6,870.
  • Charts, map and source checksums generated by code.
  • Core counting audit: 16 tests passed.
  • Population, political and religion sources joined for all 50 states.
  • Resident rates, correlations and sensitivity tables reproduced offline.
AWAITING INPUTS

District-level explanation

  • Official 2024–2025 event records and a verified NCES district frame.
  • Enrollment, policy dates and dated organizational activity.
  • Coverage information needed to distinguish zero from missing.
  • Model fitting, resistance outcomes and temporal comparisons.
Read the checks before analysis
  1. Each district name will be checked against the NCES directory and assigned one NCES identification number. If the match is uncertain, the record will remain unresolved until it can be checked manually.
  2. Every restriction will be assigned to a school year. A month will be recorded only when the source provides enough detail; otherwise, the record will show that the date is approximate.
  3. Exact and possible duplicate records will be listed before any records are combined. Restrictions ordered at the state level will not be merged with actions taken by individual districts.
  4. The yearly, state and district totals will be recalculated and compared with PEN America’s published figures. Differences will be investigated and recorded.
  5. Missing information and unavailable sources will be reported for each state and school year.
  6. A forecasting model will use only information that existed before the period being predicted.

Interpretation limits. Reporting is incomplete. Aggregate patterns do not identify an individual’s beliefs or motives. This website reports descriptive findings; no new causal model or forecast has been fitted. Social-media collection remains outside this phase.

06 / FILES & REPRODUCIBILITY

Take the evidence with you.

Review the numbers, rerun the calculations,
or inspect the historical QGIS project.

The state report retains its October 1, 2026 reconstruction and counting corrections. The website also includes the October 4 GDELT date audit, including corrections to three month descriptions. The proposal, plan, slides, QGIS files and full V2 archive retain their September 3 versions. Recovered demographic source tables are included in the revised download. Original survey responses, original chapter-model training data and the 2024–2025 PEN event-level export remain unavailable. The website map uses the QGIS package’s boundary file; QGIS desktop was not rerun for this update.