California is home to some of the best world-class universities and innovation hubs, but a new study has shown that educational attainment varies across the state.
These rankings place California metros near both the top and the bottom of the national list.
According to a recent analysis by WalletHub, a personal finance website, that studied 150 metropolitan areas, Silicon Valley and Bay Area metro areas earned top spots in the national top 10 list, while several communities in the Central Valley featured near the bottom.
California’s Most Educated Metros
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara ranked as the state’s most educated metro area, placing third in the overall national rank and fourth in the educational attainment rank, according to the study.
With a total score of 82.67, this metro area’s quality of education and attainment gap rank was three.
San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley also secured a place in the national top 10, ranking sixth overall and eighth in the educational attainment rank.
The highest-ranked metro areas in California are:
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara: Rank 3
- San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley: Rank 6
- San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad: Rank 22
- Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom: Rank 50
- Santa Rosa-Petaluma: Rank 61
The Santa Maria-Santa Barbara metropolitan area gained a spot toward the middle of the national ranking, placing 81st overall.
Similar to the Santa Barbara area, the Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura community appeared in the middle of the list with an overall rank of 92.
California’s Least Educated Metros
While some metro areas shone on WalletHub’s analysis for the high educational attainment rank, other California communities featured towards the end of the list.
California accounted for several of the nation’s least educated metro areas.
Visalia ranked 150th overall, making the city the least educated metro area on the national list. Other California cities were also among the lowest-ranked nationwide.
California’s five lowest-ranked metro areas include:
- Visalia: Rank 150
- Bakersfield: Rank 147
- Modesto: Rank 146
- Salinas: Rank 145
- Fresno: Rank 144
National Results
Ann Arbor, Michigan, bagged the top spot as the nation’s most educated metropolitan area, followed by Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara.
Here’s the list of the top 10 most educated metros:
- Ann Arbor, MI
- Durham-Chapel Hill, NC
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
- Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
- Madison, WI
- San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA
- Raleigh-Cary, NC
- Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
- Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX
- Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
The analysis found Visalia to be the least educated metro city, followed by several other California cities.
The top 10 least educated metropolitan areas include:
- Visalia, CA
- McAllen-Edinburgh-Mission, TX
- Brownsville-Harlingen, TX
- Bakersfield, CA
- Modesto, CA
- Salinas, CA
- Fresno, CA
- Stockton, CA
- Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX
- Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC
WalletHub’s Methodology
WalletHub compared the 150 most populated metropolitan areas in the United States and analyzed them using 11 metrics grouped into two broad categories: educational attainment, quality of education, and attainment gap.
Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 denoting the highest educational attainment and quality of education.
Each metro’s weighted average across all metrics was assessed to determine its overall score, which was used to create a rank.
I would be curious to see the results if someone would now overlay a map of voting patterns to these “smart/less-smart” cities.
I think if you were to color code the statistics here with ‘red’ and ‘blue’ you’d find a clear pattern. Red Hats will argue that their schools are winning so much because their scores here are higher – so much higher and so much winning!!
The bottom areas are primarily Republican majorities. MAGA doesn’t understand it takes a village.