Smartest Cities in America

Boulder, Durham, DC trump Ivy stronghold Boston
Posted Aug 30, 2010 8:57 AM CDT
Smartest Cities in America
In this July 3, 2008 photo, Dan Baker, director of the Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics, is shown in the building's atrium in Boulder, Colo., home to many research labs.   (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

The number-one brainiest city in America is a university town that major science research centers have made home and whose tech-friendly business culture draws start-ups: Boulder, Colo. Writing in the Daily Beast, Richard Florida ranks the country's 20 brainiest metro areas, as determined by things like number of adults with PhDs and master's degrees. Boulder is followed by:

  1. Durham, NC: Almost 20% of residents have graduate degrees in this high-brainpower Research Triangle town, home to Duke and North Carolina Central University.
  2. The DMV: Is it all the politicians that make the Washington, DC, area so smart? Probably a bigger factor is the city's wealth of think tanks and science institutions.
  3. Boston-Cambridge, Mass.: On one side of the river you've got MIT, Harvard, and Tufts. On the other, Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, Emerson, and lots more.
Click here for the complete list.

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