Boston is America's Smartest City, Las Vegas Ranks at the Bottom

The Daily Beast Ranks

News provided by

Oct 26, 2010, 12:51 ET

NEW YORK, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- The Daily Beast has released its second-annual ranking of America's 55 largest cities by brainpower, from first to worst. In a study examining cities' statistics on both educational attainment and intellectual environment, our data revealed that Boston came out on top as the smartest, while residents of Las Vegas had the lowest cumulative IQ. Live Now: http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-10-24/ranking-americas-smartest-and-dumbest-cities/

Top 20 smartest metropolitan areas:

Boston, MA
Hartford-New Haven, CT
SF-Oak-San Jose, CA
Raleigh-Durham, NC
Denver, CO
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
Austin-Round Rock, TX
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
Rochester, NY
Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA
Kansas City, MO-KS
Salt Lake City, UT
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD
Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI
New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA
Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH
San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA
Columbus, OH
Baltimore-Towson, MD

This year's rankings yielded new winners and losers: Congratulations to Boston, this year's smartest city—and to last year's loser, Fresno, which edged up two spots. To see last year's rankings, visit http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-10-04/americas-smartest-cities---from-first-to-worst/.

The Daily Beast's research team ranked educational performance based on how many residents had attained bachelor's and/or graduate degrees. Gauging the city's intellectual environment comprised three parts: reviewing nonfiction book sales, measuring the ratio of institutions of higher education, and factoring in libraries per capita.

Full methodology: http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-10-24/ranking-americas-smartest-and-dumbest-cities/

SOURCE The Daily Beast