2010-12-04 08:09:31
Fri Dec 3, 1:19 pm ET
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 within 7,000 square miles.