Here Are the Most, Least Educated US Cities

Ann Arbor, Michigan, tops WalletHub's list, while Visalia, California, comes in last
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 24, 2022 4:30 PM CDT
Here Are the Most, Least Educated US Cities
Stock photo.   (Getty Images/Rattankun Thongbun)

Where college grads head to after they've thrown their caps in the air can make or break a city's smarts cachet. WalletHub wanted to see which US cities can claim that "most educated" prestige, so it looked at 150 of the most populated metropolitan areas around the nation across nearly a dozen metrics in two key categories: educational attainment, which involves the share of adults 25 and older who have various levels of education, from high school up through graduate school; and quality of education and attainment gap, which includes quality of local schools and universities, racial and gender gaps, and the number of summer learning opportunities. Michigan's Ann Arbor tops the list—it also comes in first in both main categories—while Visalia, Calif., pulls up the rear. Read on to see what other cities made the top and bottom 10:

Most Educated Cities

  1. Ann Arbor, Mich.
  2. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif.
  3. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-Va.-Md.-W. Va.
  4. Madison, Wis.
  5. San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, Calif.
  6. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Mass.-NH
  7. Durham-Chapel Hill, NC
  8. Raleigh-Cary, NC
  9. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Wash.
  10. Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, Texas
Least Educated Cities
  1. Corpus Christi, Texas
  2. Ocala, Fla.
  3. Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas
  4. Stockton, Calif.
  5. Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC
  6. Modesto, Calif.
  7. Bakersfield, Calif.
  8. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas
  9. Brownsville-Harlingen, Texas
  10. Visalia, Calif.
To see where other cities fell on WalletHub's list, check here. (This is where young people want to move after college.)

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