Lexington is the 24th most literate city in the United States, according to a statistical study released Thursday.

The America's Most Literate Cities study — conducted by John W. Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University — ranks the nation's cities with a population of 250,000 or more on six key indicators of literacy: the number of bookstores, educational attainment, Internet resources, library resources, periodical publishing resources and newspaper circulation.

Miller said the study is aimed at shifting attention from school test scores on reading "to how much people are reading, and where are they reading the most."

Washington, D.C., was ranked the nation's most literate city, followed by Seattle; Minneapolis; Pittsburgh; Denver; St. Paul, Minn.; Boston; Atlanta; St. Louis; and Portland, Ore.

Among regional cities, Cincinnati ranked 12th and Louisville was 49th.

This is not the best Lexington has ranked in the study, whose results date to 2005. The city ranked 15th in 2009. Its rank was 24 in 2011; 23 in 2010; 19.5 in 2008; 17 in 2007; 30 in 2006; and 27.5 in 2005.

Read the report at Bit.ly/y1jo6s.