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Fewest degrees
These metro areas have the lowest percentage of young workers with bachelor's degrees.
Rank Metro area % of population age 25-34 with bachelor's degree Average hourly wage
1 Visalia, CA 8.7% $17.13
2 Madera, CA 9.1% $18.6
3 Hanford, CA 9.3% $19.41
4 Pine Bluff, AR 10.3% $15.54
5 Yuma, AZ 10.6% $15.18
6 Dalton, GA 10.8% $16.24
7 Danville, IL 11.3% $17.14
8 Merced, CA 11.3% $18.04
9 Odessa, TX 11.6% $17.55
10 El Centro, CA 11.7% $17.53
11 Farmington, NM 11.8% $17.78
12 Morristown, TN 11.8% $14.96
13 Bakersfield, CA 12.1% $19.33
14 Vineland, NJ 12.2% $19.67
15 Yuba City, CA 12.3% $19.8
16 Ocala, FL 12.5% $16.39
17 Yakima, WA 12.9% $17.39
18 Mansfield, OH 13.1% $17.67
19 Cumberland, MD 13.2% $16.79
20 Hinesville, GA 13.2% $16.33
21 Lake Havasu City, AZ 13.3% $16.26
22 Beaumont, TX 13.4% $17.82
23 Brownsville, TX 13.4% $14.08
24 Fort Smith, AR 13.5% $15.66
25 Lawton, OK 13.5% $15.3
Source: Education data from U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2005-2007. Wage data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2008 Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates.
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How we picked the Best Places
This year we partnered with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to find the 50 most business-friendly communities in America.

With help from Robert Fairlie, an economist and leading scholar of entrepreneurship at the University of California, Santa Cruz, we developed a methodology and sifted through such data on factors such as per capita income, hourly wages, workforce quality, crime rates, taxes and foreclosures. More

Comments? E-mail the editors
Data partners

This package was produced in partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

Foreclosure data provided by RealtyTrac.

Housing price-to-income data provided by Moody's Economy.com.