Carefree the smartest small town in Arizona

Phoenix Business Journal by Adam Kress, New Media Editor

Date: Monday, November 14, 2011, 10:16am MST - Last Modified: Monday, November 14, 2011, 11:05am MST

Related:

Education

 

Adam Kress

New Media Editor - Phoenix Business Journal

Email  | Twitter

New data that examines the educational attainment of residents in small towns shows that Carefree is the smartest small town in Arizona.

According to data from On Numbers, Carefree ranked 397th nationwide among more than 10,000 small towns for educational attainment. Small towns are those with 1,000 to 9,999 residents.

On Numbers rated local brainpower by using raw 2009 data from the U.S. Census Bureau's five-year American Community Survey. Each place's score was based on its percentage of adults (25 or older) at each level of a five-rung educational ladder:

• Dropped out before high school graduation

• Stopped at high school diploma

• Stopped at associate degree or attended college but stopped without any degree

• Stopped at bachelor's degree

• Earned graduate degree and/or professional degree

Chevy Chase Village, Md. was the No. 1 town on the list. Nearly two-thirds of the adults in the tiny Washington suburb hold graduate degrees. The runners-up are nearby Somerset, Md., and Shorewood Hills, Wis., a suburb of Madison.