California is home to some of the nation’s most knowledgeable people, according to a new ranking of the most intellectual cities in America.
In a new study by the social club Maxwell examining intellectual life across the 50 largest US metropolitan areas, San Francisco ranked as the third-most intellectual metro in the country behind Boston and Hartford, Conn.
San Francisco earned an Intellectual Life Score of 67.7 out of 100, trailing Boston’s 80.3 and Hartford’s 72.3.
San Jose landed at No. 6 overall and led the country in two categories, with 28.5% of adults holding graduate degrees and the metro area being home 36.9 adult-education schools per 100,000 residents, according to the study.
But not all Californians had such high marks.
The Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metro came dead last on the list at No. 50, while Fresno ranked 49th. Las Vegas came in at third from the bottom.
Fresno had a relatively strong showing for its universities, ranking 17th, but placed 39th for museums, 46th for libraries, and 45th for bookstores, according to YourCentralValley.
It ranked last among the metros studied for adult education, graduate degrees, and online search interest in intellectual activities.
Maxwell Social ranked the 50 largest US metros using seven measures, including museums, libraries, universities, graduate degrees, adult education, bookstores and Google search interest in intellectual activities, adjusting the results for population to produce an overall score out of 100.
The group also surveyed 905 non-student US adults aged 22 and older in August about where they find intellectual community after leaving school.
Nearly seven in 10 adults, or 68%, said they craved more intellectually stimulating social environments as they got older, while 45% said social anxiety or the difficulty of attending alone had stopped them from seeking out those settings.
Another 41% blamed a lack of time.
Meanwhile, 66% said they would trade a night of drinking for one centered around ideas, while 83% of respondents who go to bars said those venues felt “intellectually empty” at least some of the time.
