How does a place compare?
Type a place name or a ZIP code. The map follows your search, and you can also click any county on it.
The map is also available as a list in the Rankings section below.
Which places rank highest.
Each row shows where a place falls on the scale (dot) and its share of adults with a graduate degree. Click any row to see it on the map.
What this data can and cannot tell you.
These are survey estimates, not a count.
Every figure has a margin of error at 90% confidence. Each place is marked high, medium or low reliability, using the coefficient of variation: up to 12%, 12–40% and over 40%. These are thresholds commonly used for ACS data. Small towns and ZIP codes are often low.
Small differences may not be real.
A place is only described as above or below the US or state average when the gap is statistically significant at 90% confidence. Ranks include only areas with a reliable estimate, and for ZIP codes, cities and school districts at least 1,000 adults 25+. Without that floor, tiny areas with a handful of residents would top the list at 100%.
It counts residents, not your job competition.
People commute, and job markets cover whole metro areas. If you are weighing a move, look at the metro area, and at demand in your own field, which matters more than the overall share.
It is a five-year average.
The figures describe 2020 to 2024, not today. Fast-changing places may have moved since. Do not compare with another five-year release whose years overlap.
Some areas are approximations.
ZIP codes are Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate postal ZIP codes. School districts count adults living in the district, and in some states elementary and secondary districts overlap. Congressional districts use the 119th Congress boundaries.
Map area is not population.
Large rural counties dominate the map, while dense counties with many graduates look small. Use the rankings to compare counts.
It describes places, not people.
A share for a place says nothing about any individual who lives there.
Puerto Rico is searchable but not drawn.
It appears in search and rankings, but the map shows the 50 states and DC.
How it was checked
State totals add up exactly to the national total, county totals to each state, and Massachusetts towns to the state. A second, independently written program rebuilt every figure from the raw Census files and compared them. A sample of eight areas matches Census Reporter's five-year figures. For areas of 65,000 people or more, Census Reporter shows the one-year survey by default, so its numbers there can differ by about a point. This page uses the five-year release everywhere, because it is the only release that covers every area and the Census Bureau advises against mixing releases when comparing places.
How to read the colors
Blue means a smaller share than the US average and amber means a larger one. The switch sits exactly at the US average. Blue and amber stay distinguishable for the most common kinds of color blindness.
Where every number comes from
- Raw data. The Census Bureau's ACS 2020–2024 five-year Summary File (files dated January 29, 2026): table B15003 (educational attainment for the population 25 years and over) and table B01003 (total population), downloaded directly from census.gov.
- Graduate degree share = (master's degree + professional school degree + doctorate degree) ÷ population 25 and over. These are lines 023, 024 and 025 of B15003, divided by line 001. Nothing is modelled, estimated or adjusted by us.
- Margin of error for the share comes from the Census Bureau's published margins for each line, combined with the Census Bureau's formulas for sums and proportions (ACS General Handbook, chapter 8), at 90% confidence. For very small areas where some degree lines are zero, these margins come out on the wide, cautious side.
- What is left out. 1,227 areas with no adults 25+ in the data, and the Census "Remainder of state" school-district areas, which are leftover territory rather than districts.
- Shapes and pins. County and town outlines come from Census cartographic boundary files. Pins for cities, ZIP codes, districts and metro areas are the Census Gazetteer's internal points.
- What we add. Reliability labels, significance tests against the state and US, ranks, and colors. Each follows the rules stated on this page.