According to the U.S. Census Bureau and reported by CNNMoney.com, of the largest metro areas in the country, Tampa is the 4th worse in terms of its number of college graduates.
Only Riverside, California, Memphis and Las Vegas rank lower, with Tampa trailing Cleveland, Detroit and Orlando in its percentage of its citizenry that possess a degree.
On the flip side, Washington D.C. has the most college graduates, followed by San Francisco, San Jose (the home of Silicon Valley), Raleigh N.C, Boston, Austin and Minneapolis.
The story says that those towns also tend to have higher incomes as well.
Of course, salaries in those towns are also higher than the national average. That's because a highly educated population is a key to growth and prosperity. Washington, D.C., for example, has the highest median household income of any metro area of more than 1 million residents.
"There's a very high correlation between earnings and educational attainment," said Todd Gabe, an economics professor at the University of Maine.
The story also says that cities tend to specialize in the kinds of educated residents they attract, such as the aforementioned San Jose region with its high percentage of residents whose degrees are in computer science and information technology.
But the piece also states this ugly fact:
That works great for those cities where degrees lead to high-paying jobs. But other areas may have just as many college-educated but salaries can be lower than you'd expect because the degrees are in lower paying fields like teaching or journalism.
This article appears in Sep 30 – Oct 6, 2010.