2022’s Most & Least Educated Cities in America (2023)

Cities want to attract highly educated workers to fuel their economic growth and tax revenues. Higher levels of education tend to lead to higher salaries. Plus, the more that graduates earn, the more tax dollars they contribute over time, according to the Economic Policy Institute. In turn, educated people want to live somewhere where they will get a good return on their educational investment. People also tend to marry others of the same educational level, which means that cities that already have a large educated population may be more attractive to people with degrees.

Not all highly educated people will flock to the same areas, though. Some may prefer to have many people with similar education levels around them for socializing and career connections. Others may want to be a big fish in a little pond. Not every city will provide the same quality of life to those with higher education, either. In addition, the most educated cities could shift in the near future because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact it had on schooling. During the pandemic, standardized test scores experienced sizeable drops, and score gaps between low-poverty and high-poverty districts increased.

To determine where the most educated Americans are putting their degrees to work, WalletHub compared the 150 largest metropolitan statistical areas, or MSAs, across 11 key metrics. Our data set ranges from the share of adults aged 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher to the quality of the public-school system to the gender education gap.

Main Findings

Most Educated Cities

Note: *1 = Most Educated
With the exception of “Total Score,” all of the columns in the table above depict the relative rank of that MSA, where a rank of 1 represents the best conditions for that metric category.

Note: For readability purposes, the above chart displays only 50 metro areas from a total sample of 150

Ask the Experts

Research shows that a skilled and educated workforce provides a significant boost to the economy. For strategies aimed at increasing a city’s brainpower and the best approaches to educational development, we asked a panel of experts to share their thoughts on the following key questions:

1. Should local authorities target policies and programs to attract highly educated people? If so, what works?
2. Are highly educated cities better able to withstand economic shocks?
3. In your opinion, what is the most important step we can take as a country to develop a more educated and skilled workforce?
4. How can the U.S. reform its immigration policy in order to attract and retain highly educated workers from abroad?

Methodology

To identify the most and least educated cities in America, WalletHub compared the 150 most populated U.S. metropolitan statistical areas, or MSAs, across two key dimensions, including “Educational Attainment” and “Quality of Education & Attainment Gap.”

We evaluated those dimensions using 11 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the highest educational attainment and quality of education. For metrics marked with two asterisks (**), we used the square root of the population to calculate the population size in order to avoid overcompensating for minor differences across cities.

Finally, we determined each metro area’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample.

Educational Attainment - Total Points: 80

• Share of Adults Aged 25 & Older with a High School Diploma or Higher: Full Weight (~20.00 Points)
• Share of Adults Aged 25 & Older with at Least Some College Experience or an Associate's Degree or Higher: Full Weight (~20.00 Points)
• Share of Adults Aged 25 & Older with a Bachelor's Degree or Higher: Full Weight (~20.00 Points)
• Share of Adults Aged 25 & Older with a Graduate or Professional Degree: Full Weight (~20.00 Points)

Quality of Education & Attainment Gap - Total Points: 20

• Quality of Public School System: Double Weight (~4.44 Points)
  Note: This metric is based on GreatSchools.org’s ratings of U.S. public schools.
• Average Quality of Universities: Double Weight (~4.44 Points)
  Note: This metric is based on WalletHub “” rankings report.
• Enrolled Students in Top 1,015 Universities per Capita: Full Weight (~2.22 Points)
  Note: This metric is based on WalletHub “” rankings report.
• Number of Summer Learning Opportunities per Capita**: Full Weight (~2.22 Points)
• Racial Education Gap*: Full Weight (~2.22 Points)
  Note: This metric specifically measures the difference between the percentage of black bachelor’s degree holders and the percentage of their white counterparts.
• Gender Education Gap*: Full Weight (~2.22 Points)
  Note: This metric specifically measures the difference between the percentage of female bachelor’s degree holders and the percentage of their male counterparts.
• Education Equality Index Score: Full Weight (~2.22 Points)
  Note: The Education Equality Index (EEI) is a comparative measure of the achievement gap between students from low-income families, as measured by participation in the free and reduced price lunch program, and their more advantaged peers. The EEI compares the proportion of students from low-income families who are proficient on a state assessment to all students across the state who took that same grade or subject level assessment.

*Additional context: In metro areas where women have an advantage over men and black people have an advantage over white people, we gave extra credit compared to the metro areas with no gender-based/racial inequality.

Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, GreatSchools.org, Education Cities.org, Yelp and WalletHub research.

Supporting Video Files:

• YouTube - National (for web embedding)
• YouTube - Ann Arbor, MI (for web embedding)
• Raw video files (for editing into clips)

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