Education & LiteracyMinneapolis Saint Paul Region Scores High for Young Brainpower (2011)
According to the Business Journal’s “On Numbers” blog, the Greater MSP region and Rochester are national brain trusts. Both cities have high concentrations of young, college-educated people – an attractive asset to existing and expanding businesses. In the Greater MSP region, 31% of people under the age of 35 have college degrees, placing it 11th nationally. In Rochester, the percentage moves up to 34%, placing it fifth in the county.
Twin Cities Boast High Proportion of High-Skilled Immigrants (2011)
The Minneapolis Saint Paul region has a higher proportion of high-skilled immigrants than most areas of the country, according to a 2011 report from the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings. The Greater MSP area has 125 highly skilled immigrants for every 100 low-skilled immigrants, giving it a similar profile to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Seattle and San Jose. The report used data from the US Census Bureau for the nation's largest 100 metro areas. Brookings identifies Minneapolis Saint Paul as a "re-emerging gateway," meaning it saw fast immigrant growth at the end of the 20th century and into the last decade. More than 9% of Twin Cities population is made up of immigrants – less than Philadelphia, Seattle and Denver, but more than cities like Baltimore.
Minneapolis Is Nation's Third-Most Literate City (2011)
Minneapolis is the third-most literate city in the nation, behind only Washington, DC, and Seattle, according to an annual study by Central Connecticut State University. Saint Paul also made the brainy list, coming in seventh. Researchers based their findings on six main indicators for literacy among cities with populations of at least 250,000: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment, and Internet resources.
Portfolio Recognizes Twin Cities for Its Smarts (2010)
A 2010 Portfolio.com study of the country's 200 largest metro areas ranked Minneapolis Saint Paul 18th strongest in collective brainpower. Researchers analyzed US Census Bureau data for post-secondary education and high-school dropout rates to come up with a national “brainpower index.”
The Daily Beast Names Minneapolis Saint Paul Among America’s Top Brainpower Cities (2010)
For the second year in a row, The Daily Beast compared the brainpower of America’s 55 largest cities. The Minneapolis Saint Paul region ranked eighth nationally – a sign that it is more likely to bounce back from the recent recession than regions with less intellectual vigor. The scorekeeping considered only metro regions with at least 1 million people. It awarded points in two broad categories: education and intellectual environment. The first criteria looked at the percentage of residents with bachelor’s and graduate degrees. The second considered nonfiction book sales, the ratio of institutions of higher education, and libraries per capita.
