A new study of the United States cities with the most brainpower placed Boulder, Colo. at the top of the list, with Ann Arbor No. 2.

The study looked at the education levels of the residents from the 200 largest metropolitan areas.

Boulder, home to the University of Colorado, is also the residence of the most well-educated population, with five out of six adults (82.5 percent) having attended college. The city also holds the record for the highest percentage of residents to earn a master's or other graduate degree (26 percent). The city's success is credited to an economic mix that places a high premium on education and is a hub for electronics, high-technology and aerospace companies.

Ann Arbor came in second, partly due to the prominence of the University of Michigan. Washington D.C., home to thousands of federal employees, lobbying organizations and major law firms, ranked third.

Rounding out the top 10 were Durham, N.C., Fort Collins, Colo., Bridgeport-Stamford, Conn., San Jose, Calif., Boston, Madison, Wis. and San Francisco-Oakland, Calif.
 
"Several of the places that top the most educated cities list also ranked high on a previous Portfolio.com study about the best mid-size places to live, with Boulder as the No. 1 city for both studies," said G. Scott Thomas, a demographer who participated in the analyses for Portfolio.com. "There is a strong correlation between education levels and quality of life as Boulder, Fort Collins and Ann Arbor all ranked high on our most educated and best mid-size places to live studies."

On the opposite end of the list are several Texas and California cities that have a higher amount of high school dropouts than college graduates. These cities include Bakersfield, Calif. (No. 196), Visalia, Calif. (No. 197), Brownsville, Texas (No. 198) and McAllen-Edinburg, Texas (No. 199). Coming in last place is Merced, Calif., with 34 percent of the population not graduating from high school and only 11.3 percent earning a bachelor's degree. 

The large metros with the lowest rankings are Las Vegas (No. 159), Memphis (No. 142), San Antonio (No. 140), and Tampa-St. Petersburg (No. 134).

The study used data from the American Community Survey, which was conducted in 2009 and released in September 2010 by the U.S. Census Bureau. It established scores for five levels of educational attainment, based on the relative earning power of adult workers (age 25 or older). Scores were determined by comparing the 2007 median income for all workers ($33,452) with the median income for those workers at a specified educational level.
The five categories were: dropped out before high school graduation; stopped at high school diploma; stopped at an associate's degree or attended college but stopped before earning degree; stopped at a bachelor's degree and earned a graduate or professional degree. Each adult was assigned a score, based on his or her highest level of education attained by averaging the points within a market, yielding a raw figure that was converted to a final score.

Recent studies in Portfolio.com's U.S. Uncovered were the cities with the "Highest Income Growth," ranking El Paso, Texas as the city with the most growth potential. The series also disclosed the rankings of the "Most Stressful Place in America," ranking Detroit as the most stressful city; "Best Mid-size Places to Live" ranking Boulder as the small city with the highest quality of life; "Best Big Places to Live," ranking Raleigh as No. 1;  "Best Cities to have fun," ranking New York City as No. 1; "Top U.S. Wealth Centers," naming Newport Beach, Calif. as No. 1; "Small Business Vitality," naming Texas the best state and Austin the top city for small business; and "Best Places for Young Adults," naming the Southwestern region the new frontier for young Americans with Austin as No. 1.

Portfolio.com is the national business news site for executives of small and mid-sized businesses. It is published by American City Business Journals, which publishes 40 newsweeklies as well as Web sites and digital newsletters. It is the largest publisher of business-to-business information in the United States.

American City is a unit of Advance Publications Inc., which also operates Condé Nast Magazines, Parade magazine, Fairchild Publications, the Golf Digest companies, Newhouse Newspapers and cable television interests.

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