A Publication Describes This SC City As The Least Educated

Well, this isn’t what you want to hear. A South Carolina city was named amongst the least educated in America according to data from USA By The Numbers. To be fair the methodology was not included in this article, but by reading the introduction to this list I would wager it is based on the percentage of people with post-secondary education. I came to this conclusion based on the following sentence. “A stronger local economy and a better workforce are the results of a higher proportion of the population with postsecondary education or training. It may also be indicative of the quality of the local public school system.” The author goes on to say you may want to avoid these cities.

So which South Carolina city is supposedly the least educated? According to USA By The Numbers North Charleston ranked 14th on this list.

Dalton, GA
Merced, CA
McCallen-Edinburg-Mission, TX
Visalia-Porterville, CA
Salinas, CA
Ocala, FL
Corpus Christi, TX
Laredo, TX
Fresno, CA
Lafayette, LA
Hickory, NC
Beaumont, TX
Modesto, CA
North Charleston, SC
Stockton-Lodi, CA

Without any disclosed data or methodology, I have to take this with a grain of salt. And going off the experiences I’ve had with the entire Charleston area I’m going to respectfully disagree with these rankings. But if you want to read more about it you can read the full USA By The Numbers article here.

Study Ranked The Smartest States And South Carolina Its Not You

Graduations for the class of 2022 have come and gone. High school seniors have made their college plans and others are starting their careers. Does being from a certain state give you an advantage? Obviously, the quality of the school system where you live is going to have an impact. But are certain states smarter than others? Well, PennStakes.com thinks so. They recently conducted research to find out what are the smartest states and South Carolina, well this one wasn’t for you!

Some of these rankings do line up with America’s top universities, but not all. And are schools like Harvard and Yale a fair representation of the entire state? How could they be when these schools are so exclusive. But gosh, it’s hard to believe that in the bottom 5th of all the smartest states is where you find South Carolina.

So where did these rankings come from? PennStakes analyzed several key metrics including IQ scores, SAT scores, and more to create these rankings. You can see the full methodology at the end of this article.

Read the full study here

America's Smartest States (15 Lowest Ranking States)
50. West Virginia
Total Score: 12.6
49. Mississippi
Total Score: 13.3
48. Louisiana
Total Score: 15.2
47. Arkansas
Total Score: 19.1
46. Nevada
Total Score: 20.0
45. New Mexico
Total Score: 20.4

Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA downtown cityscape and street at twilight.
44. Alabama
Total Score: 22.4
43. Oklahoma
Total Score: 22.4
42. Texas
Total Score: 23.9
41. South Carolina
Total Score: 28.0

White more than double the bottom two on this list, SC did still sore a dismal 28.0. In contrast the “smartest” state on this list scored a 93.9.
40. Kentucky
Total Score: 30.5
39. Florida
Total Score: 32.4
38. Tennessee
Total Score: 34.2
37. Arizona
Total Score: 35.9
36. Idaho
Total Score: 36.5
Top 15 Smartest States
15. Nebraska
Total Score: 52.5
14. Kansas
Total Score: 53.3
13. Utah
Total Score: 55.5
12. Maine
Total Score: 55.8
11. New York
Total Score: 57.8
10. Washington
Total Score: 60.3
9. Minnesota
Total Score: 67.0
8. Colorado
Total Score: 69.4
7. New Jersey
Total Score: 69.5
6. New Hampshire
Total Score: 70.5
5. Vermont
Total Score: 72.2
4. Virginia
Total Score: 72.5
3. Maryland
Total Score: 72.8
2. Connecticut
Total Score: 73.8
1. Massachusetts
Total Score: 93.9

Massachusetts decidedly takes the win, with a score a full 20 points higher than the 2nd place state.