For those in pursuit of metro areas with a higher-than-average number of educated residents, WalletHub released its report on 2023’s Most & Least Educated Cities in America.
To determine where the most educated Americans are choosing to settle down, WalletHub compared the 150 largest U.S. metropolitan statistical areas across 11 key metrics. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale to measure the highest educational attainment of the local population and the local quality of education. The data set ranges from the share of adults aged 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher to the racial education gap and the quality of the public school system.
According to Wallet Hub, Michigan’s Ann Arbor is the most educated city in the U.S., with the highest share of bachelor’s degree holders aged 25 and older, 57.2%. This is 3.8 times higher than in Visalia, California, the metro area that ranked in last-place 150th, with a 15.2% share of bachelor’s degree holders aged 25 and older.
Joining Ann Arbor in the top 10 of educated cities is San Jose; Washington, D.C.; San Francisco; Madison, Wisconsin; Durham, North Carolina; Boston; Raleigh, North Carolina; Seattle; and Austin.
And sharing the other end of the spectrum with Visalia as being among the least educated cities are Brownsville, Texas; McAllen, Texas; Bakersfield, California; Modesto, California; Stockton, California; Hickory, North Carolina; Beaumont, Texas; Corpus Christi, Texas; and Salinas, California.
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The least educated cities…how sad that we don’t value our fellow citizens who have chosen to work in the trades. Hickory, NC is the heart of high quality American made furniture by master craftsman, not the prepacked, assembly required stuff, the elegant furnishings we all aspire to are created here. All the California cities listed are the sources of produce for our country. There would be no vegetable dishes, no salads, no fruits if it weren’t for these farmers. Most of the Texas cities listed are on the Gulf of Mexico and the home of shrimpers and fishermen. What would we do with out these trades? Their services in all these cities are valuable with our without a Bachelor’s degree.
Ellen DeGeneres, Ted Turner, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Rachael Ray, David Geffen, Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, the list goes on of successful people who didn’t have a college degree. Come to think of it, I’m doing pretty good and I don’t have a degree either.
I love the Three Stooges picture though!