This NC city is one of the most educated in US, study says. What others made the list?

A new study outlines the most educated cities in the country, and a few North Carolina metros made the list.

The study, done by AdvisorSmith, ranked the most educated cities in different size categories and overall based on how much of their population reached certain education levels.

Durham ranked among the most educated midsize cities, coming in at No. 5, the study found.

The city also ranked among the most educated cities of all sizes, coming in at No. 17, just ahead of nearby Raleigh, which came in at No. 18. Pinehurst also ranked among the top 50, at No. 38.

Raleigh was also the 5th-most educated large city, the study says.

The study considered large cities those with populations of more than 500,000 and midsize cities those with a population between 150,000 and 500,000.

Researchers used the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 2018 data on education attainment levels for the 511 metropolitan and micropolitan areas in the U.S. It analyzed the percentage of the population over age 25 that met seven different levels of education.

The seven levels were less than 9th grade, some high school but no diploma, high school graduate, some college, associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree and graduate or professional degree.

Points were assigned for “high school graduate” levels and up, with more points assigned to higher levels.

The scores were then multiplied by the proportion of the cities population that had reached that level of education, producing a “composite score” for each city, the report says.

Overall, the study found the most educated city in the country was Boulder, Colorado, which had a score of 70.

Durham got a score of 61.8. The study found that 19.2 percent of the city’s population has only a high school diploma, 15.3 percent has some college but no degree, 8 percent has an associate’s degree, 24.4 percent has a bachelor’s degree and 23.7 percent has a graduate or professional degree.

Raleigh wasn’t far behind, with a score of 61.5, the study found.

While Raleigh had a higher percentage of people with a bachelor’s degree, 30.3 percent, it had a lower percentage, 17.7, of people with a graduate or professional degree than Durham had

Most of the cities among the study’s 50 most educated were small or midsize cities that are home to major universities, the report says.

This is true of Durham as well, which is home to Duke University and not far from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and N.C. State University in Raleigh.

A few North Carolina areas were among the cities the study found to be the least educated.

Lumberton came in at No. 17 out of the 50 least educated, Roanoke Rapids ranked at No. 25 and North Wilkesboro ranked at No. 29.