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These Are the Most Educated Cities for Millennials Right Now
By: Brian Warmoth
Educated Millennials are a hot commodity for tech companies, and some metro areas have outpaced the rest of the U.S. when it comes to attracting them. New U.S. Census Bureau figures released on Thursday show that 20-somethings in America's biggest cities are still getting degrees. The updated totals from 2010-2014 also offer an updated look at the top cities for college-educated Millennials.
The cities with the largest percentages of young people with bachelor's degrees include some of the nation's most populace cities, including Boston, Washington, D.C., and New York City, but they also include some of the thriving Millennials boomtowns that we recently looked at, such as Boulder and Madison.
As of 2014, the Boulder area led major metropolitan areas with the highest bachelor's degree attainment rate among 25-34-year-olds, according to the Census Bureau. Boulder's rate of 57.2 percent, up from 54.5 percent in 2009, topped other major cities, including Boston at 54.8 percent (up from 53.2 percent) and Washington, D.C., at 51.7 percent (up from 49.8 percent). Those cities were followed by San Jose, Madison and San Francisco, which also had rates higher than 50 percent in 2014.
The findings, which are based on data collected for the American Community Survey, show increases over the past decade in education levels for Americans 25 years of age and older in counties across the Northeast, Midwest and Southwest, as well as some scattered decreases in Alaska, Georgia and elsewhere – though most counties saw levels stay about the same, according to the report:
Of the 3,142 counties or county equivalents in the U.S., the percentage of the population 25 or older with a bachelor's degree or more increased in 1,000 counties and decreased in 60 counties between 2005-2009 and 2010-2014.
Nationwide, 32.4 percent of 25-34-year-olds had received bachelor's degrees or higher in 2014, up from 30.5 percent in 2009, so Boulder, Boston and D.C. all come out of this report looking good. These cities can thank attractive tech and government jobs in many cases, along with higher ed institutions and research hubs. In the best scenarios, these metro areas can produce and employ college graduates, building ecosystems that foster community, entrepreneurship and innovation.
