Pittsburgh Ranked Smartest City in America

Per Pittsburgh Magazine: Pittsburgh Ranked Smartest City in America

According to data on the 100 most populous cities in the U.S., Pittsburgh is the brainiest of the bunch.

BY PM STAFF

PHOTO BY DAVE DICELLO
 

Henry Ford once said that failure is simply the opportunity to begin again — this time more intelligently. That observation seems particularly relevant to Pittsburgh’s remarkable post-industrial transformation. For decades after the steel industry’s collapse, Pittsburgh was the butt of jokes (heck, even the rebooted “Arrested Development” hit the ’Burgh with a low blow recently).

While the rest of the world slept on our city, we rebuilt — this time more intelligently.

Now we’re the pound-for-pound smartest city in America, according to data compiled by Motovito. The prolific real-estate website mined data from the following criteria to formulate its rankings:
 

• Universities and colleges per person
• Libraries per person
• Education level
• Media per person (newspapers, TV, radio, magazines)
• Museums per person
• Public school rank

Pittsburgh topped the list of brainy cities, followed by Orlando; Washington, D.C.; Atlanta; and Honolulu.

You may also find it relevant that Baltimore was 38th on the list. Cleveland? 47th.

We’re an enlightened bunch, but we put in the perspiration, too. Two weeks ago, research firm Scarborough revealed that Pittsburgh has the highest newspaper readership rate in the nation. So take your outdated Pittsburgh jokes and stuff ’em, Ron Howard.

For the full rankings, including the methodology, head to Motovito.