What are the most and least educated cities in the United States? Financial website WalletHub thinks it knows.
The company based its rankings of 150 metropolitan areas on eleven factors including percentage of people with or without a high school diploma or bachelor’s degree, the quality of local universities and colleges and the gaps in education between men and women or races.
“Higher levels of education tend to lead to higher salaries,” WalletHub wrote in a news release. “And the more that graduates earn, the more tax dollars they contribute over time, according to the Economic Policy Institute. In turn, educated people want to live somewhere where they will get a good return on their educational investment.”
However, they note people are motivated by different things.
“Not all highly educated people will flock to the same areas, though,” they wrote. “Some may prefer to have many people with similar education levels around them for socializing and career connections. Others may want to be a big fish in a little pond. Not every city will provide the same quality of life to those with higher education, either.”
Here are the top 10 educated cities:
Ann Arbor, Michigan (third year in a row)
Washington, DC Metropolitan Area
Silicon Valley, California
Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina
San Francisco-Oakland, California
Madison, Wisconsin
Boston Metropolitan Area
Austin, Texas
Seattle, Washington
Bridgeport Metropolitan Area, Connecticut
Here are the least educated cities:
Ocala, Florida
Fresno, California
Stockton-Lodi, California
Salinas, California
Hickory, North Carolina
Modesto, California
Bakersfield, California
McAllen, Texas
Brownsville, Texas
Visalia-Porterville, California
Silicon Valley is NOT a city. Try San Jose, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, etc …
Thanks for your comment. Silicon Valley is common shorthand for those cities you mention.
Thanks for your comment Anyway l’m not living in US.l ‘m in France.
I’m surprised there were 2 comments.
I thought I was the only reader of VOA.
Hi everybody✌ from which benchmarks did you make your evaluations ? Thx
California – 6 cities and Texas – 2 cities. Two of our largest states and they have 8 of the 10 worst educated, frightening.
Many of those cities in California’s central valley are large agricultural centers. I would guess much of the population are made up of agricultural workers, however fresno and stockton have local colleges and universities.Salinas is not terribly from the Silicon Valley but totally different. A cow town as they used to say. Probably get you strawberries artichokes and asparagus from there.
I meant to say not terribly far from silicon valley.
This evaluation is skewed subjectively.