Five California Cities Make Forbes 'Least Educated' List

A survey ranking the most and least educated American cities offers a bleak picture of California; only one of the top ten educated cities is in the state, while a whopping five of the least-educated cities hail from the Golden State, according to Forbes. 

The financial site WalletHub examined 150 cities and used nine different values to establish its rankings, including:

1. percentage of adult residents with a high school diploma or above
2. number of doctors per capita
3. percentage of employees with jobs in “computer, engineering, and sciences fields”
4. quality of public schools and universities
5. number of students enrolled in the top 200 universities in the U.S. per capita.

The report notes the inportance of higher education for cities’ economies, stating, “Research has shown that skilled workers who are also degree holders tend to pump the most money into their local economies over time.”

The top ten educated cities were:

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Raleigh, North Carolina

Durham, North Carolina

Provo, Utah

Manchester, New Hampshire

Seattle, Washington

San Jose, California

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Baltimore, Maryland

Boston, Massachusetts

The bottom ten were:

Beaumont, Texas

Salinas, California (which happens to have one of the lowest numbers of doctors per capita)

Rockford, Illinois

Brownsville, Texas

Modesto, California

Visalia, California

Bakersfield, California

Lakeland, Florida

McAllen, Texas

Fresno, California