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Ann Arbor named most educated city in US for seventh year in a row

University of Michigan campus aerial shot on Homecoming weekend in Oct. 2016 during the Illinois game: Burton Tower, Alumni Center, Michigan League, Chemistry Building, SNRE, Randall Lab, Hatcher Graduate Library, Kraus Natural Science. (Scott C.Soderberg, Michigan Photography)

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Tree Town has once again been crowned as the most educated city in the United States.

The mid-size Michigan city has been at the top of WalletHub’s list of “Most & Least Educated Cities in America” for seven years thanks to a high number of degree and diploma holders.

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“The Ann Arbor, MI, metro area is the most educated in the country, with over 95% of adults ages 25 and older having at least a high school diploma, over 57% having a bachelor’s degree and over 30% having an advanced degree, all of which are the highest rates in the country,” WalletHub officials wrote.

The finance website ranked the 150 most population metropolitan statistical areas using 11 different metrics including education equality, the quality of the local public school system, summer learning opportunities, and the number of adults over 25 holding different levels of degrees.

Ann Arbor also took the No. 1 spot in the following categories:

  • Percent of High School Diploma Holders
  • Percent of Associates Degree Holders or College-Experienced Adults
  • Percent of Bachelor’s Degree Holders
  • Percent of Graduate or Professional Degree Holders
  • Percent of enrolled students in Top 857 universities per capita

It ranked fifth for the average equality of universities and has the 18th-best public school system. Sadly, it ranked 24th for the gender education gap.

Ann Arbor is the home of the University of Michigan, Washtenaw Community College and Concordia University Ann Arbor.

The city has six public high schools, eight middle schools, and more than 20 elementary schools.

These are the top 10 most educated areas for 2024:

  1. Ann Arbor, Michigan
  2. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California
  3. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-Virginia-Maryland-West Virginia
  4. Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina
  5. Madison, Wisconsin
  6. San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, California
  7. Raleigh-Cary, North Carolina
  8. Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, Texas
  9. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Massachusetts-New Hampshire
  10. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Washington

To see the full 2024 list, click here.


About the Author
Sarah Parlette headshot

Sarah has worked for WDIV since June 2018. She covers community events, good eats and small businesses in Ann Arbor and has a Master's degree in Applied Linguistics from Grand Valley State University.

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