America's New Brainpower Cities

April 3, 2014

"...it's worthwhile to look at the metro areas that are gaining college graduates most rapidly; this is an indicator of momentum that is likely to carry over into the future.

....the fastest-growing brain hubs are in the South and Intermountain West (which excludes the states on the Pacific Coast)...

.....times are changing, and educated people are increasingly heading to these metro areas, notably in the South, were job growth has been robust and the cost of living is far lower.....

....This includes New Orleans, which ties for first place on our list with San Antonio. The New Orleans metro area's population of college graduates grew by 44,000 from 2007 to 2012, a 20.3% increase, nearly double the national average of 10.9%. .....

.....For $65,000 a year in San Francisco you get a shared apartment and no car," says long-time New Orleans tech entrepreneur Chris Reed. "Here, you get great restaurants and clubs, and you get to have a car and your own nice apartment. It's a no-brainer."...

This is true not only in terms of percentage growth, but in absolute numbers. Since 2007, for example, the Houston and Dallas metro areas have added more BAs than San Francisco-Oakland, and nearly twice as many as Boston. As a result, these and other such cities are gaining a critical mass in brainpower not widely recognized in the Eastern-dominated media......"