Brain power
New ranking of America's smartest cities puts San Antonio at back of the class
San Antonio sits at the back of the class when it comes to the smartest metro areas in the U.S., according to a new study.
In the study, published by personal finance website WalletHub, the San Antonio-New Braunfels area ranks 106th among the most-educated metros. It’s one of the lowest-ranked Texas metros, with Austin-Round Rock (No. 9), Dallas-Fort Worth (No. 71), and Houston (No. 90) performing better on the 150-metro list. At the very bottom of the list are McAllen (No. 148) and Brownsville (No. 149).
San Antonio's ranking remains unchanged from WalletHub’s 2018 study.
To determine where the most-educated Americans live, WalletHub compared the 150 largest metros across 11 metrics. That data includes the share of adults 25 and older with at least a bachelor’s degree, the quality of public schools, and the gender gap in education.
Here’s how San Antonio fared across some of the data categories (lower ranking is better):
- No. 6 — Black-versus-white education gap
- No. 40 — Women-versus-men education gap
- No. 52 — Quality of public schools
- No. 83 — Students enrolled in top 951 universities per capita
- No. 102 — Share of adults with at least a bachelor’s degree
- No. 102 — Share of adults with an associate’s degree or college experience
- No. 103 — Share of adults with a graduate or professional degree
- No. 111 — Average quality of universities
- No. 132 — Share of residents with a high school diploma
The most educated metro in this year's ranking is Ann Arbor, Michigan. Visalia-Porterville, California, though, sits at the bottom of the list as the nation's least educated metro.
