Twin Cities is Daily Beast’s 4th smartest metro

The Daily Beast has ranked America’s 55 largest cities in order of smartest to dumbest. The Twin Cities comes in #4 after Raleigh-Durham (civic IQ: 170), San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose (IQ: 165), and Boston (IQ: 162), and just ahead of Denver, Hartford-New Haven, Seattle-Tacoma, Washington D.C., Portland, and Baltimore.

#4, MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL Metro Area Population: 3,229,878 Daily Beast IQ Score: 159 Minneapolis’s public education system seems to have tragically failed its most famous son, Prince, composer of curiously spelled “I Would Die 4 U.” But for everyone else it must be doing something right. The Twin Cities’ excellent scores in bachelor’s degrees per capita and voter participation vaulted them to the top five of our list. The Midwestern work ethic doesn’t hurt. “Knowing that we might be the best or one of the best on these key measures shouldn’t stop us from striving to do better,” says Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak.

The accompanying photo is a terrifyingly frigid-looking shot of the downtown Minneapolis skyline.

There is the usual arguing of methodology in the comments. I’m thinking our high voter turnout and graduation rates helped us the most.