America’s least and most educated cities. 4 Louisiana cities listed, but where?

quote:

---

CHICAGO (NewsNation Now) — If you’re looking for America’s most educated city, you’ll find it in the Midwest.

Ann Arbor, Michigan is the most educated city in the United States according to a recent survey, followed by San Jose, Washington D.C., and San Francisco.

The WalletHub survey measured education levels of residents along with the quality of the school systems in that area and related metrics to come up with America’s most educated cities.

It compared 150 of the most populated U.S. metropolitan statistical areas to score the most and least educated cities across the country.

The top five educated cities in the U.S. are

1. Ann Arbor, MI
2. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
3. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
4. San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA
5. Madison, WI

Ann Arbor has the highest number of residents with high school and higher education levels along with the highest quality school system. The survey does note that Ann Arbor also has a significantly high racial education wealth gap out of the cities looked at.

Four Louisiana cities are on the list with New Orleans-Metairie combined and ranked No. 102. Baton Rouge is 13 slots further down at No. 115. Shreveport-Bossier City is listed at No. 127 while Lafayette slips inside the top 150 at No. 134. Other nearby cities of note include Gulfport-Biloxi (Miss.) at N. 125 and Mobile, Ala., at No. 131.

The bottom five for education in the U.S. are

1. Modesto, CA
2. Bakersfield, CA
3. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX
4. Brownsville-Harlingen, TX
5. Visalia, CA

Visalia ranked lowest for residents with higher educational attainment especially Bachelor’s and Graduate school degrees.

In publishing the results WalletHub does note, “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.”

The rankings of cities are also expected to change in the next few years due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education and the workforce.

To see where your city ranks, check out the full list on WalletHub’s website.

---

LINK /

What can be interesting, though, is to compare the incomes and poverty levels of these "highly educated cities" with other cities considered not so highly educated. Let's take Lafayette, Louisiana, ranked barely in the Top 150 and compare with Madison (#5) and Ann Arbor (#1).

Ann Arbor: $65,745 Median Household Income; $42,674 Per Capita Income; 22.3% Persons in Poverty; $1,237 Median Gross Rent

Madison: $65,332 Median Household Income; $38,285 Per Capita Income; 16.9% Persons in Poverty; $1,118 Median Gross Rent

Lafayette: $51,264 Median Household Income; $32,998 Per Capita Income; 19.7% Persons in Poverty; $890 Median Gross Rent

So what did being "highly educated" get the residents of two Top 5 cities vs. Lafayette? About $14k/year more median income with about $3,600k/year more in rent, and just below or just above Lafayette's poverty rate.

Then you have to wonder how much average college debt the population of Madison and Ann Arbor have vs. the population of Lafayette.