Say What? This New Study Says Texas Is The Third Least Educated State

Uh oh. It seems like everyone's piling onto Texas these days, which is funny because it seems like everyone is moving here too. Here's the latest dig, but it may not be as ugly as it first appears.

Texans Are Dumb?

So if you read the headline, you'd probably think the results of a new study imply that people in Texas are just plain dumb, right?

That's not it at all.

What The Numbers Say

According to the study, it does say 15% of the people included in the study had less than a high school diploma, so call it what you want.

What Study, You Ask?

Researchers at HireAHelper analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2019 American Community Survey and calculated a score up to 100 based on the number of education years a person has completed.

If that confuses you, just add up the years you've been in school. For example, if you've completed high school, you'd have 12 education years you would have completed.

Who Did They Talk To?

The study only included people that reside in cities with over 100,000 people and were grouped by size.

Cities that had a population between 100,000 and 149,000 people were considered small, midsize would be considered if the city had a population between 150,000 and 349,000 people and large population would be considered 350,000 people and up.

How The Numbers Look For Texas

Three cities from Texas made the cut for the highest number of educated years in a small market, and they are the Woodlands, College Station, and Allen, Texas.

Frisco and Plano made the list for midsize markets, and Austin ranked 6th best in the country for major markets with a population of over 350,000 with the most educated citizens.

The 3rd Least Educated State

Texas was ranked as the third least educated state, with a composite score of 8 and an average number of education years of 12.9.

According to the Census Bureau data, 25% of people have only a high school diploma, with another 15% saying they don't have a high school education. It also showed 7.5% had an associate's degree,  20% hold a bachelor's degree, and almost 11% have a graduate or professional degree.

The top 3 educated cities from the survey were Seattle, Washington D.C., and Atlanta. The states ranked highest were Massachusetts, Colorado, and Vermont.

Dive Deeper

Take a look at the Hire A Helper's ranking and click the Small Cities tab. You'll see a lot of  smaller Texas cities ranked pretty highly in there.

Look at All Those U-Hauls

Texas may not be winning any political beauty contests lately, but we must be doing something right because people are moving here in droves. We're a land of opportunity, and more people are catching on every day.