These Are The Most And Least Educated Cities In The U.S.

NEW YORK, NY — Education receives nearly universal endorsement as one of the best tools for bettering our lives and strengthening the country. Across the United States, cities that have more highly educated populations tend to have higher wages and, as a consequence, more tax dollars to fund public programs.

These conditions can create a virtuous circle. The cities with highly educated populations attract top-tier employers; these well-paying businesses in turn attract more highly educated people to come to the city. Cities with high wages and profitable industries are better able to fund their schooling systems, leading to an even more educated population. (For more national stories, subscribe to the Across America Patch and receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Which cities have the mostly highly educated populations? To find out, the website WalletHub measured metrics of education in more of the country's metropolitan areas. So who came in first?

Here are the top five best-educated cities, according to the list:

1. Ann Arbor, MI

2. Washington, D.C., metro area

3. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

4. Durham-Chapel Hill, NC

5. Madison, WI

Here are the least-educated cities according to the list:

146. Modesto, CA

147. Bakersfield, CA

148. Visalia-Porterville, CA

149. Brownsville-Harlingen, TX

150. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX

"We evaluated those dimensions using nine relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights," WalletHub said, explaining its methodology. "Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the highest educational attainment and quality of education. Finally, we determined each metro area’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its total score and used the resulting scores to rank-order the metro areas in our sample."

WalletHub also measured which cities have the biggest and smallest gaps between gender and racial education outcomes.

To find out how your city ranked, visit WalletHub for the full list.

Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images