These SC cities are among the 150 most educated in the US, new report says. See how they rank
A new study by Wallet Hub identifies the most educated cities in the U.S. and you could say South Carolina’s are all over the place — sort of near the top, the middle and fairly close to the bottom.
The personal finance website compared the 150 largest metropolitan statistical areas on such data as the share of adults age 25 and older with at least a bachelor’s degree, the quality of public-school systems and the size of the gender education gap.
“The most educated cities provide good learning opportunities from childhood all the way through the graduate level,” Chip Lupo of WalletHub said. “In addition to overall education, it’s also important to look at how well cities promote educational equality when it comes to race and gender.”
The most educated city in the country is Ann Arbor, Michigan, where 96% of adults ages 25 and older have at least a high school diploma, nearly 59% have a bachelor’s degree and nearly 32% have an advanced degree.
“Ann Arbor also ranks ninth in the country when it comes to the quality of its universities, and it has the best public-school system,” WalletHub said.
Also, the difference between the number of women and men with at least a bachelor’s degree is low — 1.8%.
It had a total score of 94.48%
South Carolina’s most educated city is Charleston, with a 63.52 ranking, coming in at No. 27. It ranked 30th for educational attainment and 42 for quality of education and the gap between men and women receiving degrees.
The Charlotte metropolitan area includes part of South Carolina and ranked 43, with an overall score of 59.28, 53rd for earning degrees and 24 for quality of schools.
Some North Carolina cities scored high, including Durham-Chapel Hill at No. 2 in the nation. Its schools ranked first in the nation. Raleigh-Cary was 7th in the nation.
Columbia was the third ranked SC city and 58 in the nation at 55.48, 68th in educational attainment and 53 in quality of schools at the gender gap in education.
Fourth was Greenville-Anderson at 77 nationally, with a score of 83 for degrees and 32 for quality of schools.
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach was fifth in the state and 111th in the country. It has an overall score of 44,40, 115 for earning degrees and 59 for quality of schools.
Last among South Carolina metropolitan areas was 116 Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC at 42.5, 113 for degrees and 135 for school quality.
Other states in the top 10 were:
3. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California
4. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-Virginia-Maryland-West Virginia
5. Madison, Wisconsin
6. San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, California
8. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Massachusetts-New Hampshire
9. Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, Texas
10. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Washington
The least educated cities were:
141. Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, North Carolina
142. Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas
143. Stockton, California
144. Fresno, California
145. Salinas, California
146. Modesto, California
147. Bakersfield, California
148. Brownsville-Harlingen, Texas
149. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas
150. Visalia, California