Increase in Philly College Grads

In February 2010 Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter launched an initiative, PhillyGoes2College, with the goal of doubling the percentage of college graduates in the area in the next 5 to 10 years. Today's Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on "brain gain." The article "Select cities see brain gain," by Conor Dougherty and Rob Barry tracked which US cities saw an increase in the percentage of residents with college degrees between the 2000 and 2010 censuses. Cities with a larger number of college graduates have a higher household income. As the article says "The upshot is that regions with the most skilled and highly paid workers continue to widen their advantages over less well-endowed locales."

The article lists the 20 cities with the greatest increase in college graduates. There were three Pennsylvania cities on the list. Coming in 8th overall is Pittsburgh with a 5.7% increase, nearly a third (29.1%) of its residents now have a college degree. Philadelphia came in at #12 and Allentown at #17; the WSJ article did not list the percentage increase or the total percentage of graduates in those areas.