Where would you expect to find the smartest people in Idaho? In one of Idaho's wealthiest cities? Maybe one of the cities that is home to a higher learning institution? We crunched some numbers to find out!
If you're a geek for numbers, you could get lost scrolling through all of the data the United States Census Bureau collects about Idaho. One of the stats they publish is the highest level of education a person has finished. This is the data set we looked at to see which cities in the state were the brainiest.
To make the list, a city or town had to have an estimated population of more than 5,000. We took the towns that fit that criterion and ranked them based on the percentage of their population over the age of 25 that had achieved a Bachelor's degree or higher. We chose 25 because according to College Factual, more students complete their degree in a reasonable time (within three or six years depending on their degree) rather than on time (within two or four years) at all of Idaho's major higher-learning institutions.
To answer the questions we speculated on at the beginning of the article, there may be some correlation to Idaho's wealthiest cities having some of the smartest residents. After all, having money certainly makes paying for college easier. Seven of HomeSnack's "10 Richest Cities in Idaho" made our list of the smartest cities.
How about the cities that are home to U.S. News & World Report's "Best Colleges in Idaho?" Of the seven schools they ranked, four of the towns those schools are found in also made our list of smartest cities.
So which cities are the smartest? Here's what we found out!
Authors Note: We know that college degrees aren't the only thing that measures intelligence (DUH) but the data is easy to access and rank, so that's what was used to write this article. Kudos to the guy who insulted my intelligence in the comments on Facebook. Good job being a bully. If you don't have anything nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all.
If You Live In One of These 15 Towns You're Among The Smartest People in Idaho
Now that you know which towns are the smartest, which ones do you think were the safest? Here's what the data says:
The Safest Towns in Idaho in 2021
Does being smart mean you're boring? For at least two cities on our "smartest" list it appears to, but we don't agree.