The most educated states in America, mapped

For many people, an expensive education can be the ticket to better career opportunities and higher pay – but it isn’t attainable for all.

Website WalletHub have compiled a set of handy maps and charts that show how educated different states in America are.

Their methodology was pretty intensive, examining what they call “key factors” of a well-educated population: educational attainment, school quality, and achievement gaps between genders and races. Comparing all 50 states, the data set ranges across adults aged 25 and older with at least a high school diploma.

In order to determine the “most” and “least” educated states, they compared them across two key dimensions: educational attainment and quality of education, examined using 18 relevant metrics on a 100-point scale.

It’s pretty complex, and their findings were fascinating. WalletHub found that the top five states were: Massachusetts, Maryland, Colorado, Vermont and Connecticut. The lowest ranking state was Mississippi, which scored just 21.01 on their scale.

The study showed some other pretty interesting findings: despite ranking at number 25 on the scale generally, California ranked highest for university quality. Meanwhile, Massachusetts had the highest number of graduate degree holders.

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