2023’s Most & Least Educated States in America

Originally published WalletHub.

How educated is Maryland? (1=Most; 25=Avg.):

• 28^th – % of High-School Diploma Holders
• 9^th – % of Associate’s Degree Holders or College-Experienced Adults
• 3^rd – % of Bachelor’s Degree Holders
• 2^nd – % of Graduate- or Professional-Degree Holders
• 10^th – Avg. University Quality
• 15^th – Racial Gap in Educational Attainment
• 1^st – Gender Gap in Educational Attainment

For millions of Americans, a good education is the ticket to a better future. College opens doors to more career opportunities, higher earnings and new social connections, among other benefits. But how much schooling one receives also matters to some extent. Generally, the higher the level of education one completes, the higher their income potential and the lower their chances of unemployment become.

Some states are able to provide better quality education than others, though. In this study, WalletHub compared all 50 states across 18 metrics that examined the key factors of a well-educated population: educational attainment, school quality and achievement gaps between genders and races.

A separate WalletHub analysis identifies the Most & Least Educated Cities.

Most Educated States

Note: With the exception of “Total Score,” all of the columns in the table above depict the relative rank of that state, where a rank of 1 represents the best conditions for that metric category.