A recent study by WalletHub compared the 150 largest metropolitan statistical areas to establish where America’s most educated individuals are living and working.
The Albany/Schenectady/Troy metropolitan area came in within the top 20, even beating out several other major metropolitan areas in the state!
Here’s where we ranked, and what was involved with the study.
The Albany area ranked 19th out of 150 metropolitan areas examined.
Here’s the complete top 20:
- Ann Arbor, MI
- Washington/Arlington/Alexandria, DC/VA/MD/WV
- San Jose/Sunnyvale/Santa Clara, CA
- Durham/Chapel Hill, NC
- Madison, WI
- Boston/Cambridge/Newton, MA/NH
- San Francisco/Oakland/Hayward, CA
- Provo/Orem, UT
- Austin/Round Rock, TX
- Seattle/Tacoma/Bellevue, WA
- Tallahassee, FL
- Bridgeport/Stamford/Norwalk, CT
- Trenton, NJ
- Raleigh, NC
- Minneapolis/St. Paul/Bloomington, MN/WI
- Colorado Springs, CO
- Denver/Aurora/Lakewood, CO
- Baltimore/Columbia/Towson, MD
- Albany/Schenectady/Troy, NY
- Hartford/West Hartford/East Hartford, CT
Albany/Schenectady/Troy beat out areas like New York City/Newark/Jersey City, Buffalo/Cheektowaga/Niagara Falls, Syracuse, and Rochester.
For the study, WalletHub took into account the percentage of adults aged 25 and older with:
- At least a high school diploma
- At least some college experience, or an associate’s degree
- At least a bachelor’s degree
- At least a graduate or professional degree
The experts also looked at the quality of education and attainment gaps in the following:
- Public school system ranking
- Average quality of universities
- Number of enrolled students in top 200 universities per capita
- Racial gap in educational attainment
- Gender gap in educational attainment
Additionally, according to the experts, cities with an educated workforce are better able to withstand economic shocks – it’s looking pretty good to live in the Albany area!
Check out the full study here.
Sources:
- WalletHub: 2016’s Most and Least Educated Cities
