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The education level of residents can be an important factor to consider when you're looking at prospective places to live.
Higher education could mean the area has jobs that attract workers who expect higher salaries. Residents may find it easier to collaborate professionally and personally with others at a similar education level. It can also mean better education for parents with kids in school.
Some cities are better at attracting high performers, with higher education levels than others. But where are these educated residents living? WalletHub analyzed data from metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) and provided a breakdown.
The Top Five
Rank | MSA | Total Score | Educational Attainment Rank | Quality of Education & Attainment Gap Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Ann Arbor, MI | 94.48 | 1 | 2 |
2 | Durham-Chapel Hill, NC | 85.00 | 2 | 1 |
3 | San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | 82.67 | 4 | 1 |
4 | Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 81.93 | 3 | 36 |
5 | Madison, WI | 79.62 | 6 | 16 |
Ann Arbor leads the country as the most educated city, helped by its first-place rank in percentage of adults with associate degrees and second-place rank for percentage of residents with a high school diploma. More than 96% of adults in Ann Arbor have a high school diploma, 59% have a bachelor's degree, and 32% have an advanced degree. Another factor that gives the city near Detroit a boost is that it's the home to the main campus for the University of Michigan.
In fact, college towns dominate the top five most educated cities in the United States. Durham, North Carolina, for example, is the home of Duke University, while the University of Wisconsin's main campus calls Madison, Wisconsin its home. Madison also had the third-highest percentage of residents with high school degrees and the fourth-highest percentage of residents with at least an associate's degree.
The San Jose area is not necessarily known for its college towns but is home to prestigious schools including Stanford University in nearby Palo Alto. WalletHub noted that the metro area came in third place in its rankings for quality of universities. It also has a low gap between educated men and women with only a 1.6% difference between men and women with at least a bachelor's degree.
Tech hubs also made the top 10 of most educated cities, according to WalletHub. In addition to the San Jose area's third-place rank, the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley metro area ranked sixth and the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area came in at 10th place.
The Bottom Five
Rank | MSA | Total Score | Educational Attainment Rank | Quality of Education & Attainment Gap Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Visalia, CA | 12.32 | 149 | 118 |
2 | McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX | 13.57 | 150 | 19 |
3 | Brownsville-Harlingen, TX | 82.67 | 4 | 1 |
4 | Bakersfield, CA | 16.25 | 147 | 132 |
5 | Modesto, CA | 19.03 | 146 | 141 |
Despite California having two of the top 10 most-educated metro areas, it also dominates the least-educated metro areas. The state has six of the 10 least-educated cities in WalletHub's rankings including the top spot on the list. Visalia, California, leads the list with Bakersfield and Modesto giving California a lead in the top five least-educated cities.
Visalia, Bakersfield and Salinas, California were bogged down by being among the top-five cities with the lowest percentage of high school diploma holders. Modesto, Bakersfield, and Visalia also ranked in the top-five lowest percentage of residents with at least an associate's degree.
McAllen and Brownsville are joined by the Beaumont-Port Arthur area in Texas, which ranks ninth among the least-educated metro areas in the United States. Like some of the California towns with low rankings in the WalletHub survey, Texas towns were also dragged down by residents without a high school degree or some college experience.
The McAllen area had the lowest percentage of residents with a high school degree and the lowest percentage of residents with at least an associate's degree. Brownsville came in second place in both of those rankings.