EDUCATIONAL LEVEL: "THERE'S ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT."

To determine where the most educated Americans are putting their degrees to work, WalletHub compared the 150 largest metropolitan statistical areas, or MSAs, across 11 key metrics. Our data set ranges from share of adults aged 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher to quality of the public school system to gender education gap. Of 150 cities across the united States, the following are the top 10. Below are the bottom of the 150, where Brownsville ranks 149 of 150, just one rank behind McAllen-Edinburg. We have a lot of work to do.

Cities want to attract highly educated workers to fuel their economic growth and tax revenues. Higher levels of education tend to lead to higher salaries. And the more that graduates earn, the more tax dollars they contribute over time, according to the Economic Policy Institute. In turn, educated people want to live somewhere where they will get a good return on their educational investment. People also tend to marry others of the same educational level. Already having a large educated population may be a good way to draw in even more people with degrees.

"LEAST" EDUCATED CITIES