Austin is outsmarting all of its Texas neighbors as one of the most educated cities in the America, according to a new study by WalletHub.

Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown earned a prestigious rank as the No. 8 most educated U.S. metro, and No. 1 most educated in Texas. It’s the second year in a row Austin has remained in eighth place.

WalletHub analysts compared the 150 largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) based on 11 educational attainment and education quality metrics. Educational attainment was weighted significantly higher than quality of education (an 80-20 split).

Ann Arbor, Michigan (a city outside of Detroit), earned the title as the No. 1 most educated city in America, followed by Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina (No. 2), and Madison, Wisconsin (No. 3).

Austin reigns over all other Texas cities with high rankings across the two key dimensions in the study. Austin landed in sixth place for its “quality of education and attainment gap” rank, and it has the ninth best “educational attainment” rank in the country.

Attainment measured the share of adults 25 or older with at least:

• a high school diploma
• some college experience or an associate’s degree
• a bachelor’s degree
• a Graduate or professional degree

Quality adopted values from GreatSchools.org, WalletHub, and other databases ranking:

• quality of public school systems
• quality of universities
• enrolled students in top 822 universities per capita
• number of summer learning opportunities per capita
• percentage of Black bachelor’s degree holders vs. white counterparts
• percentage of female bachelor’s degree holders vs. male counterparts
• education equality index score

From elementary and middle schools, to award-winning high schools and globally leading public universities with highly sought after graduate programs, there’s is no shortage of places for children and young adults to obtain the best education possible in Austin.

Forbes Advisor also agrees with WalletHub’s assessment of the city’s acclaimed educational opportunities; the publication ranked Austin the No. 7 most educated U.S. city in its September 2024 report.

“The most educated cities provide good learning opportunities from childhood all the way through the graduate level,” said WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo. “In addition to overall education, it’s also important to look at how well cities promote educational equality when it comes to race and gender.”

Educational rankings in other Texas cities
According to WalletHub, Austin is a far leap ahead of all other Texas cities when it comes to investing in its K-12 and collegiate education systems.

The second-most educated place in Texas is Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, but the North Texas metro only ranked No. 71 out of all 150 cities on the list. Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land took the No. 3 spot statewide, but only ranked No. 85 nationally.

San Antonio-New Braunfels ranked No. 100 overall, with six other Texas metros lagging behind outside the top 100: Killeen-Temple (No. 117), El Paso (No. 132), Corpus Christi (No. 140), Beaumont-Port Arthur (No. 141), McAllen-Edinburg-Mission (No. 148), and Brownsville-Harlingen (No. 149).

The report says people with higher levels of education tend to earn bigger salaries, and the cities that attract these highly educated individuals “fuel their economic growth,” thus leading to a greater contribution of tax dollars over time. The study also suggests that highly educated workers aim to live in places that will give them “a good return on their educational investment.”

“People also tend to marry others of the same educational level, which means that cities that already have a large educated population may be more attractive to people with degrees,” the report’s author wrote.

The top 10 most educated cities in America are:

• No. 1 – Ann Arbor, Michigan
• No. 2 – Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina
• No. 3 – Madison, Wisconsin
• No. 4 – San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California
• No. 5 – Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Virginia-Maryland-West Virginia
• No. 6 – Raleigh-Cary, North Carolina
• No. 7 – San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, California
• No. 8 – Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, Texas
• No. 9 – Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Washington
• No. 10 – Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Massachusetts-New Hampshire