Leaderboard
Best cities for higher education
Every city in the CityFunIndex, ranked by its Higher Education score. Density of college and university students — the engine behind a college town.
- Cities ranked
- 134
- Top score
- 93
- Average
- 49
Pillar scores are national percentile ranks on a saturation curve, so the leader of every category lands near the same ceiling — the ranks beneath are still distinct. See how scoring works →
Fargo (93) leads, ahead of Providence (92) and Hartford (92). Charleston anchors the bottom at 0 — a 93-point gap.
Regional read The top 10 spans 9 different states — no single state dominates this board.
All 134 cities, coloured by higher education score band. The top-ranked cities draw larger.
- Quiet
- Some Fun
- Fun
- Very Fun
- Exceptional
Score spread across all 134 cities
- Quiet 40
- Some Fun 26
- Fun 27
- Very Fun 21
- Exceptional 20
Ranked 5–134
- T#5 91 Bridgeport, CT
- T#5 91 Jackson, MS
- T#5 91 Burlington, VT
- T#8 90 Boulder, CO
- T#8 90 Madison, WI
- T#8 90 Des Moines, IA
- T#11 89 Baton Rouge, LA
- T#11 89 Lubbock, TX
- T#13 88 Pittsburgh, PA
- T#13 88 Lincoln, NE
- T#13 88 Tucson, AZ
- T#16 87 Boston, MA
- T#16 87 Norfolk, VA
- T#18 86 Greensboro, NC
- T#18 86 Savannah, GA
- #20 85 Lexington, KY
- T#21 84 Cincinnati, OH
- T#21 84 Minneapolis, MN
- T#23 83 Irvine, CA
- T#23 83 Riverside, CA
- #25 82 Atlanta, GA
- #26 81 Raleigh, NC
- T#27 80 Winston-Salem, NC
- T#27 80 Charleston, SC
- #29 79 Milwaukee, WI
- #30 78 Laredo, TX
- T#31 77 Richmond, VA
- T#31 77 Montgomery, AL
- #33 76 Tampa, FL
- #34 75 Columbus, OH
- T#35 74 Arlington, TX
- T#35 74 Buffalo, NY
- #37 73 Santa Ana, CA
- #38 72 Glendale, AZ
- T#39 71 Boise, ID
- T#39 71 San Antonio, TX
- #41 70 San Diego, CA
- #42 69 Saint Paul, MN
- T#43 68 El Paso, TX
- T#43 68 Durham, NC
- #45 67 Newark, NJ
- #46 66 Stockton, CA
- T#47 65 Fort Wayne, IN
- T#47 65 Austin, TX
- #49 64 Corpus Christi, TX
- #50 63 Phoenix, AZ
- T#51 62 Tulsa, OK
- T#51 62 Santa Barbara, CA
- #53 61 Omaha, NE
- #54 60 Toledo, OH
- T#55 59 Seattle, WA
- T#55 59 Wichita, KS
- #57 58 Houston, TX
- #58 57 Fresno, CA
- T#59 56 Reno, NV
- T#59 56 Anaheim, CA
- #61 55 Bakersfield, CA
- #62 54 Philadelphia, PA
- T#63 53 Charlotte, NC
- T#63 53 Garland, TX
- #65 52 Long Beach, CA
- #66 51 Fort Worth, TX
- T#67 50 Billings, MT
- T#67 50 Louisville, KY
- #69 49 Nashville, TN
- #70 48 Anchorage, AK
- T#71 47 Dallas, TX
- T#71 47 Colorado Springs, CO
- #73 46 Chicago, IL
- #74 45 Cleveland, OH
- T#75 44 Indianapolis, IN
- T#75 44 Washington, DC
- #77 43 North Las Vegas, NV
- #78 42 Los Angeles, CA
- T#79 41 Aurora, CO
- T#79 41 Memphis, TN
- #81 40 Oklahoma City, OK
- #82 39 Irving, TX
- T#83 38 Spokane, WA
- T#83 38 Manchester, NH
- #85 37 Kansas City, MO
- #86 36 Detroit, MI
- T#87 35 San Jose, CA
- T#87 35 Baltimore, MD
- #89 34 New Orleans, LA
- #90 33 Albuquerque, NM
- T#91 32 Sacramento, CA
- T#91 32 Mesa, AZ
- #93 31 Jacksonville, FL
- #94 30 Little Rock, AR
- T#95 29 St. Louis, MO
- T#95 29 Virginia Beach, VA
- #97 28 Plano, TX
- #98 27 Chandler, AZ
- T#99 26 Santa Fe, NM
- T#99 26 Sioux Falls, SD
- #101 25 Asheville, NC
- #102 24 Aspen, CO
- T#103 23 Las Vegas, NV
- T#103 23 Santa Clarita, CA
- #105 22 Bismarck, ND
- #106 21 New York, NY
- T#107 20 Orlando, FL
- T#107 20 Napa, CA
- #109 19 Gilbert, AZ
- #110 18 Chesapeake, VA
- T#111 17 Denver, CO
- T#111 17 Honolulu, HI
- #113 16 Hialeah, FL
- #114 15 Portland, OR
- T#115 14 Park City, UT
- T#115 14 Jersey City, NJ
- #117 13 Miami, FL
- #118 12 Bend, OR
- T#119 11 St. Petersburg, FL
- T#119 11 Oakland, CA
- #121 10 San Francisco, CA
- #122 9 Scottsdale, AZ
- T#123 8 Portland, ME
- T#123 8 Henderson, NV
- #125 7 Fremont, CA
- #126 6 Gatlinburg, TN
- T#127 5 Key West, FL
- T#127 5 Wilmington, DE
- #129 4 Hilton Head Island, SC
- #130 3 Jackson, WY
- T#131 2 Sedona, AZ
- T#131 2 Stowe, VT
- #133 1 Telluride, CO
- #134 0 Charleston, WV
1 of 134 cities has no higher education measurement, so it sits at the median (50) as a placeholder — flagged above and not a measured rank. The composite Fun Score renormalises around the gap, so it is unaffected.
Higher Education is measured from NCES Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) full-time-equivalent enrollment and US Census ACS age cohort data.