Four Cities in North Carolina Rank in Top 10 Most Educated

WalletHub has released its annual report on the most and least educated cities in America.  It comes as cities want to attract highly educated workers to fuel economic growth.  The higher levels of education tend to have higher salaries and, according to the Economic Policy Insititute, contribute more tax dollars.

North Carolina two Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) in the top ten.  A MSA is a geographical region with a relatively high population density.  The Durham-Chapel Hill MSA is ranked number six on the list and Raleigh-Cary comes in at eighth.

The number one area in the country is Ann Arbor, MI.

In the bottom 10, sadly, NC also has an entry.  Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton come in at number 144 on the list of 150.

A link to the full report is here.

Most Educated Cities

Rank Metro Area Total Score Educational Attainment Quality of Education & Attainment Gap
1 Ann Arbor, MI 94.71 1 1
2 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 83.12 4 3
3 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV 82.25 2 22
4 San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA 80.77 5 14
5 Madison, WI 80.59 3 54
6 Durham-Chapel Hill, NC 78.94 8 4
7 Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH 78.81 7 41
8 Raleigh-Cary, NC 78.40 6 37
9 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA 76.09 10 12
10 Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX 75.98 12 6
WalletHub’s 2023’s Most & Least Educated Cities in America

Least Educated Cities

Rank Metro Area Total Score Educational Attainment Quality of Education & Attainment Gap
141 Salinas, CA 28.66 141 115
142 Corpus Christi, TX 28.35 140 141
143 Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX 28.03 144 85
144 Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC 27.66 142 126
145 Stockton, CA 24.71 145 98
146 Modesto, CA 19.57 146 144
147 Bakersfield, CA 17.69 147 123
148 McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX 14.16 150 8
149 Brownsville-Harlingen, TX 11.21 149 107
150 Visalia, CA 8.28 148 149

The personal finance website graded 150 metropolitan areas on factors including the percentage of adults with a high school diploma, college experience or higher education degrees. It also examined the quality of public schools and universities and looked at gender and racial gaps.

WalletHub’s experts also noted that school test scores dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic, which only expanded the gap between low-poverty and high-poverty districts. Student absenteeism was also a factor.