The Lakeland metro area is one of the least educated in the United States, according to a study from WalletHub.
The study looked at the 150 largest metro areas across several metrics, including the share of adults with high school or college diplomas, plus the quality of the public school system and universities.
The Lakeland metro area, which includes Winter Haven, ranked 139th out of the 150 cities that qualified for the study.
The most educated city in Florida is Tallahassee, according to WalletHub, which ranked 22nd in the U.S. The other Florida cities rankings were:
- Naples-Marco Island (53)
- Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford (56)
- North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota (63)
- Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville (65)
- Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach (71)
- Jacksonville (76)
- Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater (79)
- Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent (98)
- Cape Coral-Fort Myers (107)
- Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach (115)
- Port St. Lucie (119)
- Ocala (138)
The most educated city in the U.S. is Ann Arbor, Michigan, according to WalletHub. More than 95% of those older than 25 have at least a high school diploma, and 57% have a college degree. It also has only a 1.9% gap between the share of men and women with at least a bachelor’s degree.
“Higher education doesn’t guarantee better financial opportunities in the future, but it certainly correlates with it,” Cassandra Happe, a WalletHub analyst, said in a statement. “The most educated cities provide good learning opportunities from childhood all the way through the graduate level.”
The 10 Most Educated Cities:
- Ann Arbor, Michigan
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California
- Washington-Arlington-Alexandria (DC metro area)
- Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina
- Madison, Wisconsin
- San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, California
- Raleigh-Cary, North Carolina
- Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, Texas
- Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Massachusetts/New Hampshire
- Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Washington
The 10 Least Educated Cities (1 is least educated):
- Visalia, California
- McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas
- Brownsville-Harlingen, Texas
- Bakersfield, California
- Modesto, California
- Stockton, California
- Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, North Carolina
- Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas
- Salinas, California
- Corpus Christi, Texas
View the full rankings and methodology on WalletHub .