List: America’s least and most educated cities

Updated: Jul 19, 2021 / 11:37 AM CDT

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN – MARCH 17: Peyton Grant of Lavallette, New Jersey (L) and Lizzy Anderson of White Pigeon Michigan pack up and move out of their dorm at the University of Michigan on March 17, 2020 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. College students across America are being told to leave campus and continue classes online after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Coronavirus (COVID-19) a pandemic. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

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 DC 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 also included provisions for measuring racial and gender gaps in education when it scored each city.

The survey 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

Ann Arbor, MI
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA
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.

Source: WalletHub

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

Modesto, CA
Bakersfield, CA
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX
Brownsville-Harlingen, TX
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