US Counties With the Lowest Population with a Bachelor's Degree or Higher
3,205 US counties ranked by population with a bachelor's degree or higher, from lowest to highest. First are Buffalo County, SD (36.43), McDowell County, WV (43.23) and Gaines County, TX (43.37). The middle one of the 3,205 has 151.53.
What this measures
The number of adults aged 25 and over who have at least a bachelor's degree. Source: Census ACS 5-year.
This is a count, so it is ranked per 1,000 residents. Ranked by the raw total, it would just list the biggest counties.
For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.
The 100 lowest counties
Every state, lowest first
Each state’s own published figure, not an average of its counties.
| Rank | State | Per 1,000 residents |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | 161.28 |
| 2 | West Virginia | 165.62 |
| 3 | Arkansas | 169.23 |
| 4 | Louisiana | 178.70 |
| 5 | Oklahoma | 183.67 |
| 6 | Kentucky | 184.20 |
| 7 | Alabama | 189.36 |
| 8 | Nevada | 191.46 |
| 9 | Indiana | 192.77 |
| 10 | Wyoming | 204.12 |
| 11 | Idaho | 204.95 |
| 12 | South Dakota | 206.20 |
| 13 | Iowa | 206.71 |
| 14 | New Mexico | 207.22 |
| 15 | Alaska | 207.68 |
| 16 | Tennessee | 209.06 |
| 17 | North Dakota | 210.92 |
| 18 | Ohio | 213.42 |
| 19 | Texas | 215.31 |
| 20 | Puerto Rico | 215.88 |
| 21 | South Carolina | 217.96 |
| 22 | Missouri | 218.09 |
| 23 | Michigan | 220.17 |
| 24 | Utah | 222.01 |
| 25 | Arizona | 223.92 |
| 26 | Nebraska | 223.93 |
| 27 | Wisconsin | 226.26 |
| 28 | Georgia | 229.23 |
| 29 | Kansas | 231.37 |
| 30 | North Carolina | 238.22 |
| 31 | Florida | 240.04 |
| 32 | Montana | 240.77 |
| 33 | Pennsylvania | 243.12 |
| 34 | Delaware | 249.17 |
| 35 | California | 250.60 |
| 36 | Hawaii | 252.07 |
| 37 | Illinois | 256.01 |
| 38 | Oregon | 258.17 |
| 39 | Maine | 260.87 |
| 40 | Rhode Island | 264.45 |
| 41 | Minnesota | 264.87 |
| 42 | Washington | 270.92 |
| 43 | New York | 278.55 |
| 44 | Virginia | 285.49 |
| 45 | New Hampshire | 289.55 |
| 46 | Connecticut | 295.25 |
| 47 | Maryland | 295.91 |
| 48 | New Jersey | 299.09 |
| 49 | Vermont | 305.88 |
| 50 | Colorado | 310.87 |
| 51 | Massachusetts | 329.77 |
| 52 | District of Columbia | 458.15 |
More on population with a bachelor's degree or higher
- US Counties With the Highest Population with a Bachelor's Degree or Higher
- Population with a bachelor's degree or higher by US county: map by year and what it goes with
A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.