America's Most Literate Cities

America's Most Literate Cities 

Drawing from a variety of available data resources, the America’s Most Literate Cities study ranks the largest cities (population 250,000 and above) in the United States. 

This 2013 study focuses on six key indicators of literacy: number of bookstores, educational attainment, Internet resources, library resources, periodical publishing resources, and newspaper circulation.

The original study was published online in 2003 at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. 

Dr. John W. Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University, is the author of this study. Research for this edition of AMLC was conducted in collaboration with the Center for Public Policy & Social Research at CCSU.

According to FORBES Advisory: 

"In the U.S., people with higher levels of education tend to earn higher salaries. In fact, workers with bachelor’s degrees make about 68% more than those with only a high school diploma, according to median wage data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).


"As a result, the most educated cities in the U.S. are primed to produce more innovation and tax revenue. This attracts companies looking for educated workers, which in turn leads to an even higher concentration of highly educated individuals." 


"To determine the most educated cities, Forbes Education gathered several education metrics for the 100 largest U.S. cities by population from the Census Bureau’s 2021 American Communities Survey."


Published: [October, 2023] https://www.forbes.com/advisor/education/student-resources/most-educated-cities/


The first 10 cities and the metrics of this survey are shown below.