Connecticut is Nation's Third Most Educated State, Data Shows

Connecticut is the nation’s third most educated states, according to a new data analysis, behind only Massachusetts and Maryland, and just ahead of Vermont, Colorado, New Jersey, Virginia and New Hampshire.

Connecticut ranked second to Massachusetts in the average university quality category, and third in the percentage of residents with graduate or professional degrees. 

The financial services website WalletHub compared all 50 states across 18 metrics that examined the key factors of a well-educated population: educational attainment, school quality and achievement gaps between genders and races.  Four of those metrics related to Educational Attainment, the remainder related to the Quality of Education & Attainment Gap.  The later category included the number of Blue Ribbon Schools per capita, the public high school graduation rate, and the presence of free community college.

Among the sub-categories, Connecticut ranked first in Gender Gap in Educational Attainment, sixth in the percentage of bachelor’s degree holders.

In a separate analysis, WalletHub identified the Most Educated Cities in the U.S., with the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk metropolitan area ranking 11th in the nation, and Hartford-East Hartford-Middletown ranked 27th.  That analysis also determined that the New Haven-Milford region ranked 43rd.  Topping the list were Ann Arbor, MI; San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA; and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria.

“The one step I think can make a difference in both the long and short term is to lower the tuition of state-supported higher education institutions. Even though the tuition of most state-supported institutions is lower than private institutions, the state-supported tuition in many states has become higher than many citizens can afford. The workforce is shrinking, and the economy needs to involve a much higher percentage of the population in the mainstream economy,” said Stephen M. Brown, Professor Emeritus of Management, John F. Welch College of Business – Sacred Heart University.

Data used to create the Most Educated States ranking were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. News & World Report, Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health, National Summer Learning Association, The Campaign for Free College Tuition, Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, U.S. Department of Education, The College Board and WalletHub research.  Data used for the Most Educated Cities came from the U.S. Census Bureau, GreatSchools.org, Education Cities.org, Yelp and WalletHub research.