Business & site selection
Top US talent markets by degree attainment
The deepest college-educated labor pools among metros over 100k.
When the hire is the hard part, go where the graduates are. These metros over 100k residents have the highest share of college-educated workers.
Published by WhereToHQ research. Calculated from committed source data with no generated editorial text.
What the ranking shows
- Cambridge, MA leads this list at 80.8% for bachelor's degree or higher.
- Across the 15 published entries, bachelor's degree or higher ranges from 67.5% to 80.8%. The other columns show tradeoffs that the headline order cannot capture.
| # | City | Bachelor's degree or higher | Avg. weekly wage | Median household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cambridge, MA119k | 80.8% | $2,277/wk | $130,748 |
| 2 | Ann Arbor, MI122k | 77.9% | $1,476/wk | $82,212 |
| 3 | Arlington, VA236k | 77.1% | $2,519/wk | $142,114 |
| 4 | Boulder, CO106k | 76.8% | $1,948/wk | $87,493 |
| 5 | Berkeley, CA120k | 74.9% | $1,961/wk | $108,092 |
| 6 | Carmel, IN102k | 74.4% | $1,391/wk | $141,505 |
| 7 | Naperville, IL151k | 72.5% | $1,200/wk | $155,105 |
| 8 | Bellevue, WA152k | 72.1% | $2,630/wk | $165,576 |
| 9 | Irvine, CA312k | 70.6% | $1,631/wk | $136,719 |
| 10 | Cary, NC179k | 70.5% | $1,560/wk | $134,905 |
| 11 | Sunnyvale, CA154k | 69.3% | $4,064/wk | $186,170 |
| 12 | Sandy Springs, GA107k | 69.2% | $1,405/wk | $104,340 |
| 13 | Seattle, WA754k | 68.4% | $2,630/wk | $116,000 |
| 14 | Highlands Ranch, CO102k | 67.8% | $1,618/wk | $159,307 |
| 15 | Frisco, TX219k | 67.5% | $1,307/wk | $150,212 |
Ranked from public data we track (US Census/ACS, BLS, EIA, FEMA, NOAA, Tax Foundation) and recomputed on every data refresh. Figures are estimates for comparison, not advice; open any city to see all facets.
Candidate rules: 100,000 or more residents. Ranking rule: Bachelor's degree or higher, highest first.
WhereToHQ loads at most the 500 largest eligible national candidates, or 300 candidates for a state list, before applying the published rules. Missing values are excluded from a direct sort or hard filter. In a weighted score, an unknown value is neutral rather than favorable.