The Most And Least Brainy Cities In America

The Most And Least Brainy Cities In America

Do you live in a college town? Take a look around -- chances are it's one of the brainiest cities in America.

Portfolio Magazine recently ranked 200 American cities in order of relative brainpower. Using new American Community Survey data, it looked at cities' average adult earning power and median level of educational attainment to determine which towns had the most cerebral force.

Ranking among the brainiest cities are Boulder, Colo., home of the University of Colorado; Ann Arbor, Mich., home of the University of Michigan; Washington, D.C., which has several colleges and universities; Durham, N.C., where Duke University is located, and Fort Collins, Colo., home to Colorado State. (See the rest of the brainiest cities here.)

The five least brainy cities are concentrated west of the Mississippi. They include Merced, Calif., McAllen-Edinburg, Tex., Brownsville, Tex., Visalia, Calif. and Bakersfield, Calif. (If you can bear to look, find the least brainy cities here.)

Porfolio's survey focused on the 200 largest metro areas in America, the largest being New York City and the smallest Burlington, Vt.

Earlier this year, the Brookings Institute found that Washington, D.C. was America's most-educated metro area and Scranton, Penn. was the least-educated.

In terms of which cities have the most degrees, however, San Francisco emerges as the unmatched winner. According to blogger Rob Pitingolo, the city by the bay has more than 7,000 degrees per square mile.

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