Much as it pains our Queen City-bleeding hearts to say this, if the world relied on lists to determine the best cities in North Carolina, Charlotte wouldn’t even be a contender.
Raleigh, Asheville and Durham beat us again, this time in a ranking of the most-educated metropolitans in the U.S. Using nine metrics, including the level of education of workers in a city and the kinds and qualities of universities in the near vicinity, WalletHub deemed Raleigh and Durham the second- and third-most educated cities of 150. Asheville wasn’t far behind.
Sitting proudly at No. 73? Charlotte.
The site lists two reports as inspiration: the Economic Policy Institute’s on the effects of education on state finances and a recent one from the Treasury and Education departments that links accessible high-quality education to expanding job opportunities. Charlotte ranked high in cities with the lowest average quality of top universities.
The good news? We’re smarter than Hickory!
This article appears in Sep 10-16, 2014.
