Americans pursue a college education for the many benefits it can provide, including more career opportunities, higher income and robust social connections, according to a report from WalletHub, a personal finance website.
The report, citing U.S. government data, noted that the higher the level of education completed, the higher the potential earnings and the lower the chances of unemployment. But that’s not the case across the country, as some states are better able to provide quality education than others.
“There’s a strong correlation between being more educated and receiving higher compensation,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said in a statement. “The most educated states provide high-quality educational experiences from elementary school all the way to graduate programs, which helps parents raise children in an environment that gives them as many opportunities as possible.”
Moreover, Lupo said, equitable schooling conditions are the norm in the top states, with low racial and gender gaps in educational attainment.
In order to determine the most and least educated states in the U.S., WalletHub compared the 50 states across these key dimensions:
- Educational attainment (60 points), measuring the share of adults 25 and older who have completed various levels of education, from a high school diploma to a doctorate
- Quality of education (40 points), including quality of school system, average quality of colleges, public high school graduation rate, enrolled students in top universities per capita, and racial and gender equality in educational attainment
Researchers examined those dimensions using 18 relevant metrics, and graded each one on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most educated ones.
See the gallery for the 12 most educated states in the U.S., according to WalletHub.
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