"Smart" doesn't necessarily equate with "educated," but having an education can certainly help maximize one's natural intelligence—and there are certain US cities where the most scholarly are gathered. WalletHub looked at the 150 most populated metropolitan areas in the US, specifically across two key categories: "educational attainment" and "quality of education and attainment gap," examining such metrics as the level of education achieved, the quality of public schools and colleges in each area, and racial and gender educational gaps. Ann Arbor, Mich., came out on the top of the list of the nation's most educated cities. Here, how others ranked:
- Ann Arbor, Mich. (No. 1 in "educational attainment" category)
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif.
- Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-Va.-Md.-W. Va.
- Durham-Chapel Hill, NC
- Madison, Wis.
- San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, Calif.
- Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Mass.-NH
- Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Wash.
- Austin-Round Rock, Texas
- Provo-Orem, Utah
Read on to see the least educated cities, per WalletHub's findings
The least educated cities:
- Visalia-Porterville, Calif.
- Brownsville-Harlingen, Texas
- McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas
- Bakersfield, Calif.
- Modesto, Calif.
- Salinas, Calif.
- Stockton-Lodi, Calif.
- Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC
- Ocala, Fla.
- Fresno, Calif.
See the complete list
here, or check out the states with
the best and worst school systems. (More
US cities stories.)