Thank you to all of the census takers that for a brief moment, created the illusion that unemployment was lower and for giving us all of this substantial data on changes in the United States population. Now that the numbers are compiled and analyzed, we have been given some data to digest.

Nationwide, 28.2% of the populations 25 and above have a college degree or higher with a median household income of $50,046. Across the board, median household incomes have dropped in almost all major metro areas. In the highest earning 10 cities, incomes fell an average of 6.5% from $75,100 to $70,201 while the bottom ten saw a 10.8% drop from $46,380 to $41,378.

The decade saw an increase of 27 million people with the highest gains in the metro cities while the rural populations saw declines. Other key elements released included a 6% decline in births from women 20 to 34 and a rise in immigrants entering the US from 556,000 in 2009 to 1.4 million in 2010. In 15 metro areas, poverty has risen over 10% on average with 80 of the top 100 cities over 10% currently.

Now for the part you have all been waiting for, how much smarter are we getting?

As a collective whole San Francisco, Madison and Boston are proud to say that 43%+ of their 25 and over population have a college education.

The ten metro areas that showed the highest percentage gain in the last decade in adults that have a college education or higher are:

10. Odgen, UT – 5.5% (30.1% Total)
9. New York City, NY – 5.6% (36.0% Total)
8. Pittsburgh, PA – 5.7% (29.1% Total)
7. Worcester, MA – 5.8% (32.7% Total)
6. Omaha, NE – 5.9% (33.0% Total)
5. Baltimore, MD – 5.9% (35.1% Total)
4. Poughkeepsie, NY – 6.0% (30.9% Total)
3. Boston, MA – 6.1% (43.0% Total)
2. Madison, WI – 6.4% (43.3% Total)

Drum Roll Please!!!!

1. Charleston, SC – 6.9% (31.9% Total)

The percentage winner of the 2010 Census Bureau Gain in Brain Power Competition is Charleston, SC….

For all of the statistics lovers and math fanatics, now you know the rest of the story

*Sources provided by Brookings Institution, Census Bureau and Wall Street Journal
Complete findings found in the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey