Multiple US Cities Rank Among Most Educated in 2025

Recent studies and rankings from WalletHub and SmartNews highlight the most educated and news-engaged cities in the United States for 2025. WalletHub identified Madison, Wisconsin as the third most educated city, thanks in part to the presence of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and strong public school performance; Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue also ranked highly at ninth, with nearly half of its adult population holding a bachelor's degree or higher. In Connecticut, several metro areas including Bridgeport-Norwalk-Stamford, Hartford-East Hartford-Middletown, and New Haven-Milford ranked among the top 30 most educated cities, although some struggled with educational attainment gaps. Meanwhile, SmartNews used per capita daily news consumption via its app to rank 999 cities, revealing that smaller and midsized communities, such as Haysville, Kansas, and Ferndale, Michigan, show the highest levels of news literacy, challenging the notion that the largest cities are the most informed. Major metropolitan areas like New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago ranked much lower in news engagement. These findings collectively emphasize that educational attainment and news consumption are distributed differently across urban and smaller communities in America.