A new study found that Texas has four of the 10 least educated cities in the United States.
To establish the ranking, WalletHub compared and ranked 150 of the largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) based on 11 different factors.
These factors were split into two categories, “Educational Attainment” and “Quality of Education and Attainment Gap,” and given scores that add up to a total of 100 points.
The Educational Attainment category, accounting for 80 points, factors in the levels of education that residents in the MSAs have reached.
Quality of Education and Attainment Gap focused on the quality of public schools and universities while also examining the educational gap between various groups of people. This category accounted for the remaining 20 points.
The data used to determine the rankings were collected from sources including the U.S. Census Bureau, GreatSchools.org, and Yelp.
Based on that data, Texas had four MSAs ranked in the bottom 10 for education, with two in the bottom three.
Corpus Christi was ranked as one of the least educated MSAs in the country, achieving a score of just 28.35. The area also ranked 140th and 141st in the Educational Attainment and Quality of Education and Attainment Gap categories, respectively.
Right behind Corpus Christi was Beaumont-Port Arthur, which ranked 143rd with an overall score of 28.03. The MSA ranked 144th in Educational Attainment but slightly higher in Quality of Education and Attainment Gap at 85th.
Further down the list was McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, which ranked 148th and had a score of just 14.16. Surprisingly, the MSA ranked eighth for Quality of Education and Attainment Gap, but this high ranking was undoubtedly offset by the MSA’s ranking 150th in Educational Attainment.
Finally, the lowest-ranked MSA in Texas was Brownsville-Harlingen, which came in at 149th overall with a total score of 11.21. The MSA’s Educational Attainment ranking was 149th, and it ranked 107th in Quality of Education and Attainment Gap.
The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington MSA scored 54.58, placing it 72nd in the state. Its two major category rankings were similar, with a 73rd overall ranking in Educational Attainment and a ranking of 64th in Quality of Education and Attainment Gap.
Texas’ only MSA in the top 10 was Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown. Ranking 12th in Educational Attainment and sixth in Quality of Education and Attainment Gap, the area scored 75.98 and was ranked 10th overall. For comparison, first in the overall ranking was Ann Arbor, Michigan, which placed first in both categories and achieved an overall score of 94.71.
In line with these findings, a previous WalletHub study placed Texas 41st overall in ranking the most educated states released in February.
