Recently, WalletHub released a ranking of the most and least educated cities in the nation, and, sure enough, the District managed to rank among the top 5 most educated cities in America!
The study focused on two key dimensions:
- The overall education attained by those living in the city.
- The quality of education available in the city, as well as whether there were any notable demographic gaps in accessing that education.
Where the District ranks among the most educated cities in America
As we mentioned previously, the District ranked among the top 5 cities that the study ranked as the most educated in the nation.
Here’s how the nation’s capital performed in the study:
- Overall Rank – #5 in the nation
- Total Score – 81.42 points out of a potential 100
- Educational Attainment Rank – #3 in the nation
- Quality of Education & Attainment Gap Rank – #35 in the nation
What was this study’s methodology?
As we highlighted above, the study focused on two key dimensions:
- The overall education attained by those living in the city.
- The quality of education available in the city, as well as whether there were any notable demographic gaps in accessing that education.
Those values for each of these two dimensions were ultimately determined by measuring 11 unique metrics, each of which was assigned a unique weight depending on the importance of the variable.
Here’s how that broke down:
- Educational Attainment – 80 potential total points
- Share of Adults Aged 25 & Older with a High School Diploma or Higher – 20 points
- Share of Adults Aged 25 & Older with at Least Some College Experience or an Associate’s Degree or Higher – 20 points
- Share of Adults Aged 25 & Older with a Bachelor’s Degree or Higher – 20 points
- Share of Adults Aged 25 & Older with a Graduate or Professional Degree – 20 points
- Quality of Education & Attainment Gap – 20 potential total points
- Quality of Public School System – 4.44 points
- Average Quality of Universities – 4.44 points
- Enrolled Students in Top 822 Universities per Capita – 2.22 points
- Number of Summer Learning Opportunities per Capita – 2.22 points
- Racial Education Gap – 2.22 points
- Gender Education Gap – 2.22 points
- Education Equality Index Score – 2.22 points