2. Massachusetts
Population: 6,902,149
Capital: Boston
Percent holding advanced degrees: 19.5
Median household income: $74,167
Massachusetts
The state of Massachusetts has a rich economic history. From agriculture to fishing, forestry to export, it is a history that may not have alluded to the intellectual powerhouse the state would become. With the steady decline in its traditional economic practices, the state was primed to open itself up to the future, a gambit that paid off.
Today the economy of Massachusetts is grounded in research and development in the most cutting edge fields of technology. Being a scientific and engineering epicenter it is entirely unsurprising that the state leads the pack, so to speak, in higher educated individuals per capita.
With continued investment and the prominence of MIT as one of the top technology and engineering learning institutions in the world, this state has such a lead on R&D that there is no feasible projection in which another state could overtake it.
1. District of Columbia
Population: 702,455
Capital: Washington, D.C.
Percent holding advanced degrees: 33.4
Median household income: $82,372
District Of Columbia
Although not a state, Washington DC is the political capital of the United States.
Congress makes decisions on large scale budgetary legislation, hence a small but notable amount of the US budget is spent in and around Washington DC. Due to the volume of equipment purchased by the US government, many companies maintain an active presence.
With numerous universities and ample employment opportunities, it is easy to understand the allure for the educated individual to seek employment opportunities in and around DC. An additional draw is academic research centers.
It is then possibly the culmination of these factors that lead to the area’s high retention rate of individuals with advanced degrees.
