2014’s Most and Least Educated Cities

Call them what you will: the cream of the crop, the best and brightest, the intellectual elite. But it’s official; the college-educated third of Americans are society’s new upper crust. Research has shown that skilled workers who are also degree holders tend to pump the most money into their local economies over time. A city’s prosperity, one then can assume, depends in large part on the productivity of its educated citizens.

However expensive college may be in 2014, its economic returns “remain high and provide a pathway for individual economic mobility,” according to a recent report from the Treasury and Education departments. The latter further pointed out that education “expands job opportunities” and “boosts America’s competitiveness” in the global arena.

A little more than a year ago, the Economic Policy Institute also released its report on the effects of education on state finances. The EPI’s findings suggested that college degrees are supremely important in helping to resuscitate weak economies. One way to strengthen states is to attract well-paying employers “by investing in education and increasing the number of well-educated workers.”

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