Residents with advanced degrees: 12.7% of population
Residents with some college education: 57.9%
Once students get to the Green Mountain State, they never leave.
"Vermont is a great place to live, and I think that what happens is when people come here to go to college, a lot of them choose to stay here," says Jo Bradley, CEO of the Vermont Economic Development Authority. "We have a great quality of life."
Schools like Middlebury, University of Vermont, Burlington College, and the Vermont State College system draw in both natives and migrants -- and the graduates that stick around don't typically go work for corporate behemoths. The state doesn't have a single Fortune 500 company headquartered within it.
"We are more the home-grown industry, with maybe 300 to 600 people working," Bradley says. "We don't have mega-factories."
The area is also eager to showcase its "highly motivated" workforce. When a company is looking to grow or expand in Vermont, that is "one of the things that we publicize," Bradley says.
NEXT: New Hampshire
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