35 Most Educated Cities in the U.S.
Sure, some of the bigger cities like Boston and San Francisco made the list, but the most educated cities in the U.S. are much smaller.
35 Most Educated Cities in the U.S.
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Learning is a lifelong process, whether in a formal education setting or curled up with a book next to a warm fire. Because more Americans are getting college degrees than ever, that means highly educated graduates have their pick of which city to migrate to as they begin their careers.
It’s no surprise that some of our most educated cities have urban appeal with a high number of colleges and universities to boot, but there are also a lot of small towns that made the cut. With that in mind, check out the 35 most educated cities in the U.S.
35. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
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Educational Attainment Rank: 41
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 36
Total Score: 62.14
* All of the data was sourced from a WalletHub study, unless otherwise noted.
How It Ranks
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Pittsburgh was so famous for its production of steel that it was long known as "Steel City." Now, it's also home to the thriving industries of healthcare, computer science and biology. PPG is headquartered in Pittsburgh, along with Eaton, Howmet Aerospace and even Dick's Sporting Goods. We wouldn't have ketchup without Pittsburgh, since Heinz has been based there since 1869.
Students there most commonly attend the University of Pittsburgh, but the private university Carnegie Melon is also highly respected.
34. Lansing, Michigan
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Educational Attainment Rank: 34
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 58
Total Score: 62.31
How It Ranks
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Here’s some trivia for you: Lansing is the only capital city that is not also the seat of its county (in this case, Ingham County). Now that you have the answer for Final Jeopardy, you can join the erudite ranks of this city of 118,000, whose professionals work in government, insurance and, of course, at General Motors.
The Western Michigan University Cooley Law School is also known for educating some of the best lawyers of tomorrow.
33. Manchester-Nashua, New Hampshire
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Educational Attainment Rank: 25
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 124
Total Score: 62.34
How It Ranks
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Manchester, known as the Queen City, gave birth to the likes of Seth Meyers and Adam Sandler. The city is the center of sports, entertainment and culture in New Hampshire, and it's home to several accredited public and private universities.
Manchester is the financial center of northern New England, serving as the home of countless jobs in electronics engineering, aerospace and defense, textiles, industrial machinery, banking and more.
32. Eugene, Oregon
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Educational Attainment Rank: 44
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 19
Total Score: 62.54
How It Ranks
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Craft breweries, funky cafes and an impressive number of bike lanes are drawing in the hipster crowd, but this rather livable city boasts some decent intellectual heft thanks in no small part to one of the city’s largest employers, the University of Oregon.
Olympic runner Steve Prefontaine, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” author Ken Kensey and actor David Ogden Stiers are all Duck alumni, and the quality of life and pleasant climate offered in Oregon’s third-largest city are attracting the well-educated to work in environmental technology and software development.
31. Greater Philadelphia Area
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Educational Attainment Rank: 27
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 81
Total Score: 62.68
How It Ranks
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The City of Brotherly Love is also the place where the grand idea of American democracy was born in Independence Hall one sweltering July day in 1776. Given that Philadelphia is one of the oldest American cities, it’s certainly had time to build up its intellectual capital.
Thriving universities like Temple and Drexel continue to educate thousands in Pennsylvania's largest city, which boasts thriving sectors in industries like healthcare, energy, financial services — and, of course, cheesesteaks.
30. Honolulu, Hawaii
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Educational Attainment Rank: 45
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 11
Total Score: 63.00
How It Ranks
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We know what you’re thinking: How much schooling does one really need to sit on a beach? But being on an island, thousands of miles from the mainland, means Honolulu has to deal with issues no other American capital city faces. In fact, all of the problems facing the 50th state are unique being completely cut off from its 48 brethren.
This means no interstates for trucks to deliver goods, requiring a self-sustaining economy and necessitating complicated modeling for planes and boats to import anything not grown or fished on the Hawaiian islands, i.e., Honolulu needs smart people to keep it going. Fortunately, the city has 20 colleges and universities with prestigious programs in engineering and business to “fix” paradise.
29. Chicago, Illinois
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Educational Attainment Rank: 33
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 43
Total Score: 63.30
How It Ranks
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Chicagoland encompasses some 11,000 square miles and is America’s third-largest city in terms of population. The University of Chicago ranked sixth-best in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s prestigious college rankings for 2020 — but don’t count out nearby Northwestern at No. 9.
In addition to booming businesses like manufacturing and transportation, graduates are filling the ranks of Chicago’s financial firms and revered newsrooms. And even though Chicago is dubbed “Second City” for arts, theater, and TV and film production, it needs skilled tradespeople and trained artisans to make that movie magic happen.
28. Asheville, North Carolina
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Educational Attainment Rank: 36
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 29
Total Score: 63.57
How It Ranks
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Asheville is best known for the luxurious Biltmore Estate, which is impressive for its delicate architecture and grand opulence alike. It's also the site of a lively arts scene with endless new breweries and businesses.
The Biltmore is a hub of job opportunities in hospitality, retail and agriculture, but Asheville is also a major aerospace manufacturing hub. It's also prime territory for aspiring healthcare professionals and educators.
27. Hartford, Connecticut, Metro Area
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Educational Attainment Rank: 21
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 127
Total Score: 64.65
How It Ranks
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Connecticut’s capital city hires folks with degrees to work in state government, but its insurance, manufacturing and finance sectors are also drawing in the bookish crowd. Hartford is known as the capital of the insurance market, perhaps due to its being the wealthiest American city in the first few decades after the Civil War.
And like many a New England city, Hartford has a bevy of colleges, including the University of Saint Joseph, Trinity and the University of Hartford.
26. New York Metro Area
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Educational Attainment Rank: 29
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 16
Total Score: 65.58
How It Ranks
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Columbia, New York University and Fordham are just a few of New York’s institutions of higher learning that host students from all over the world. So is true of New York’s financial, tech and publishing industries, all of which employ college-educated staff to figure out how to negotiate an ever-changing world — both now and well into the future.
Of course, the Big Apple is also a cultural mecca, inviting only the best of the best to test their skills in culinary arts, musical theater, fashion and, well, you get it.
25. Atlanta, Georgia
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Educational Attainment Rank: 28
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 17
Total Score: 65.76
How It Ranks
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In addition to Emory University, Georgia Tech and Georgia State, the capital and largest city of the Peach State is home to a great many historically black colleges and universities (HBCU), whose alumni include Samuel L. Jackson (Morehouse College) and his director on at least one occasion, Spike Lee (Clark Atlanta University).
Atlanta is fast becoming the Hollywood of the South, with dozens of films and television shows setting up shop for production — with help from the 350-acre Tyler Perry Studios. The plethora of finance, healthcare and government jobs in Atlanta also require educated professionals to keep the A-T-L maintaining its place in the vanguard.
24. Huntsville, Alabama
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Educational Attainment Rank: 26
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 7
Total Score: 66.32
How It Ranks
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When it comes to brainy metropolitan areas, the northern Alabama city of Huntsville probably doesn’t come readily to mind (shame on you for being provincial), but what you may not know is that Huntsville is home to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Space Camp and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
While it may not take a rocket scientist to spell “Alabama,” Huntsville nonetheless is home to engineers and scientists who are figuring out the next step in our path into outer space. A thriving tech and defense contractor industrial sector is also waving in those with higher degrees to the Yellowhammer State.
23. San Diego Metro Area
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Educational Attainment Rank: 26
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 7
Total Score: 67.18
How It Ranks
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San Diego is so sharp that they even practice something called the “Smart City” initiative. Under this program, the Southern California metropolis aims to be more energy-independent, push electric cars and reduce smog in the long term.
Whether employing graduates from hometown universities — University of California, San Diego, or San Diego University State University — or engineers from afar, it’s little wonder this beachside community is often dubbed “America’s Finest City.”
22. Lexington-Fayette, Kentucky
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Educational Attainment Rank: 22
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 24
Total Score: 67.63
How It Ranks
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Home to the 150-year-old University of Kentucky, the Lexington area is flourishing thanks to its historical association with bluegrass music as well as its 21st-century reputation as a research and tech hub in the upper South. Kentucky’s second-largest city is also known as the “Horse Capital of the World,” and boasts several colleges including Transylvania University (no word on if Dracula went there).
And thanks to the challenges posed by automation, the region’s coal mining and agricultural sectors are in need of those with advanced degrees to see the area move forward.
21. Tallahassee, Florida
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Educational Attainment Rank: 24
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 13
Total Score: 68.17
How It Ranks
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Tallahassee’s Florida State University and Florida A&M are fond of their football for sure, but the capital of the Sunshine State has much more going on than the fall pigskin season. Trade, agriculture, fishing and all of the attendant water sports activities that go along with being a Gulf of Mexico port keep the educated in Tallahassee.
It’s also home to various trade associations and the Florida Bar, which sets the, uh, “bar” for anyone who wishes to practice law in the state.
20. Baltimore Metro Area
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Educational Attainment Rank: 16
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 112
Total Score: 68.18
How It Ranks
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Yes, we watched “The Wire,” too, but let’s not judge Baltimore solely on that (excellent) TV show. Maryland’s largest city has been an important commercial and shipping hub since the days of the Revolution and, today, is home to famous sports franchises, up-and-coming businesses and art galleries.
Loyola University Maryland, University of Baltimore and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County are all situated here, and there is perhaps no more revered medical institution in the country than Baltimore’s own Johns Hopkins.
19. Minneapolis-St. Paul
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Educational Attainment Rank: 14
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 111
Total Score: 68.85
How It Ranks
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The Mississippi River begins its 2,400-mile meander south from just above the Twin Cities, and just like the Ole Miss, the Minneapolis-St. Paul area is the source of a great deal of innovation and industry.
Little wonder that at the river’s source, manufacturing and agriculture have long been staple industries, but what might surprise you is that 16 Fortune 500 firms are headquartered in Minnesota’s capital region. That means jobs of the corporate variety — many of which require advanced degrees.
18. Albany, New York
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Educational Attainment Rank: 20
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 65
Total Score: 68.93
How It Ranks
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Another state capital, another rather smart city. Among Albany’s woes is a critical housing shortage, which experts are undertaking to fix.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is a famous engineering school in nearby Troy, with big-brained programs in chemical engineering, computer science and mechanical engineering.
17. Colorado Springs, Colorado
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Educational Attainment Rank: 15
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 109
Total Score: 69.06
How It Ranks
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You don’t just get into the Air Force Academy. It’s incredibly competitive, as are the jobs at the various military installations around Colorado Springs, anchored by the extremely selective academy.
Armed forces jobs, especially in the officer corps, require advanced degrees, especially at the U.S. Space Command, located in Colorado Springs.
16. Portland, Oregon, Metro Area
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Educational Attainment Rank: 19
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 57
Total Score: 69.46
How It Ranks
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Portland State, Concordia University and the University of Lewis & Clark are situated in Oregon’s largest city, which shares a metro area with Vancouver, Washington, just across the Columbia River.
What the two cities also share is a hopping healthcare and tech sector, a craft beer scene that is the envy of the nation and enough weirdness to give Austin a run for its money. You could even call it educated weirdness as nearly half of the city’s denizens have a bachelor’s degree or higher, the Census reports.
15. Trenton, New Jersey
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Educational Attainment Rank: 18
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 47
Total Score: 69.97
How It Ranks
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Poor Trenton: It’s the butt of so many jokes, whether or not you’re from New Jersey. Laugh at the Garden State’s capital if you like (“Whassamatterwityou?!”), but the truth is that the brain cell quotient of Trenton is rather appreciable, partly due to the state government’s making a concerted push to, well, “clean up” the state and city’s image.
Gov. Phil Murphy also recently touted grants for Trenton schools to get more students interested in the STEM fields, with some of them one day perhaps attending the nearby College of New Jersey (formerly Trenton State).
14. Provo-Orem, Utah
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Educational Attainment Rank: 17
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 31
Total Score: 71.70
How It Ranks
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Nearly 50 miles south of Salt Lake City lie the cities of Provo and Orem, which likely wouldn’t be much of a blip on the cultural radar were it not for Brigham Young University, home to 33,000 Cougars at any one time. BYU employs some rather smart professors, who are molding the young minds of tomorrow in such fields as business, biomedical sciences, engineering and education.
The school’s distinguished alumni include none other than Mitt Romney, the one-time governor of Massachusetts, 2012 presidential candidate and current junior senator representing Utah in Washington, D.C.
13. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Connecticut
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Educational Attainment Rank: 9
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 146
Total Score: 71.88
How It Ranks
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Have you ever looked at a job on Indeed.com? If so, you have the capable people in Connecticut’s Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk area to thank, as the employment portal is located there as well as big employers Xeros and Charter Communications.
And hey, you think those WWE soap opera stories write themselves? Nope, and here’s betting money that Vince McMahon’s Stamford-based wrestling empire hires not only “writers” but also educated technicians in broadcasting and marketing as well as those with advanced degrees in sports medicine to patch up all those “fake” ring injuries.
12. Portland, Maine, Metro Area
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Educational Attainment Rank: 13
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 46
Total Score: 72.29
How It Ranks
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The “original” Portland calls itself the third-most-learned city in America (WalletHub must not have gotten the memo), with nearly a fifth of its populace having a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Those degrees come in handy in the Forest City, especially sheepskins of the medical variety. The Maine Medical Center employs nearly 10,000 people, making it one of Portland’s biggest sources for jobs.
11. Denver Metro Area
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Educational Attainment Rank: 11
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 78
Total Score: 72.52
How It Ranks
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Maybe being a mile above sea level makes Denver residents want to get a “higher” education (sorry, we couldn’t help it!). However, when folks in Colorado’s capital aren’t busy discovering a new microbrewery or hiking the Rockies, they’re hitting the books plenty.
About 40 percent of residents have degrees in the fields of science, engineering or technology. And a full 19 percent of Denverites have achieved a master’s degree or higher in any field.
10. Austin, Texas
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Educational Attainment Rank: 12
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 6
Total Score: 75.98
How It Ranks
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Austin, Texas, and Portland, Oregon, are always shouting about which city is weirder, but in the scholarly sweepstakes, the Texas capital wins hands-down. Tech firms, corporations and space sector companies have flocked to the Austin region for its business-friendly climate and, yes, the surfeit of honky-tonks and Tex-Mex eateries for spending time off the clock.
Furthermore, the University of Texas hosts upwards of 50,000 students at any one time, so future “smart weirdos” are never in short supply.
9. Seattle Metro Area
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Educational Attainment Rank: 10
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 12
Total Score: 76.09
How It Ranks
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One word: Microsoft. Bill Gates’s baby has been attracting cerebral nerds for decades, but whomever the software giant doesn’t lure in for jobs, nearby Boeing surely will. Seattle is one of America’s smartest cities thanks to the computer and defense contractor industries.
And the 46,000 students at the city’s University of Washington are almost certain to keep that trend going — that is, if they don’t drop out and form grunge bands instead.
8. Raleigh, North Carolina
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Educational Attainment Rank: 6
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 37
Total Score: 78.40
How It Ranks
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North Carolina’s capital city comprises part of the “Research Triangle.” Wait, “research” must mean really smart people, right? Naturally, Raleigh is home to many respected colleges, including North Carolina State University, Campbell Law School and the seminary at Shaw University Divinity School.
And all of those brilliant researchers are pouring their brain power into local jobs in technology, medicine, startups and government.
7. Boston Metro Area
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Educational Attainment Rank: 7
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 41
Total Score: 78.81
How It Ranks
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Trust us, we’re as surprised as you that the home of Harvard, MIT, Berklee College of Music, Boston University and Boston College isn’t No. 1, but Beantown is still one of the brightest towns notwithstanding. In addition to the aforementioned schools, Boston’s corporate recruiters vie with one another to snap up qualified applicants for the city’s biotechnology, financial and tourism firms.
The city is also home to a thriving arts community, and many Hollywood directors come to town to film on Boston’s streets, hopefully before dining on some “chowdah.”
6. Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina
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Educational Attainment Rank: 8
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 4
Total Score: 78.94
How It Ranks
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The two other nodes of North Carolina’s “Research Triangle” (recall Raleigh at No. 12) count Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill among their institutes of higher learning.
And those Blue Devils and Tarheels often transition into jobs with local businesses in the technology, healthcare and government sectors.
5. Madison, Wisconsin
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Educational Attainment Rank: 3
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 54
Total Score: 80.59
How It Ranks
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The Badger State’s capital might not have a baseball team like Milwaukee or a football franchise like Green Bay, but what it does have is an incredibly enlightened populace. The University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus in Madison boasts top-rated programs in education, rehabilitation counseling and psychology (oh, and they do have a football team: the Badgers).
Or, if math is your thing, Madison’s mortgage broker and insurance firms would be happy to have you on the payroll.
4. San Francisco Bay Area
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Educational Attainment Rank: 5
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 14
Total Score: 80.77
How It Ranks
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The City by the Bay is a haven for folks with advanced degrees, and thank goodness, because someone has to figure out how to pay those astronomical rents! San Francisco is one of America’s major business centers and part of a worldwide network of trade routes leading into and out of the bay that go back to the days of the California Gold Rush.
Not only international trade, but technology and banking also prop up the region, which is also the base for one of the country’s major research hospitals at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center.
3. Washington, D.C., Metro Area
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Educational Attainment Rank: 2
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 22
Total Score: 82.25
How It Ranks
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However you might feel about politics, the District of Columbia and its Maryland and Virginia suburbs host one of the highest concentrations of intellectual, uh, “capital,” not only in the country but in the world.
Government agencies, nonprofits, museums, trade organizations, lobbying firms, media and financial firms draw in the best of the brightest not only in America, but also internationally.
2. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California
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Educational Attainment Rank: 4
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 3
Total Score: 83.12
How It Ranks
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Long before it was dubbed “Silicon Valley,” this pricy piece of Northern California real estate was mostly known for garlic — yes, garlic. Centuries before IBM, Facebook, Apple, Intel and their ilk forever spiked real estate rates, agriculture was the lifeblood of the Santa Clara Valley, with Gilroy known as the “Garlic Capital of the World.”
But, today, students from Stanford University, San Jose State and Santa Clara University can intern for those tech titans without straying far from campus.
1. Ann Arbor, Michigan
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Educational Attainment Rank: 1
Quality of Education & Attainment Rank: 1
Total Score: 94.71
How It Ranks
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It wasn’t even close. The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor campus sits on more than 3,000 acres of land and hosts more than 40,000 students, which is greater than the population of Annapolis, Maryland.
But population isn’t as important as proportion, and Ann Arbor has an impressive 55.2 percent of its populace holding at least a bachelor’s degree, making it numero uno when it comes to America’s most educated cities.