We’re, like, the smartest city in Florida, y’all!
According to Portfolio.com, which ranked its listings according to Census education and income data, Gainesville is the 14th smartest city in the nation and smartest overall in Florida, putting it 20 spaces ahead of our state’s capital and home to Florida State University, Tallahassee.
And as for our metropolitan neighbor to the south? Ocala came in at 181.
So, all of you judging those supposedly dumb jocks or oh-my-god-I-have-a-semiformal-to-attend-here-hold-my-Ugg-boots Florida girls, think again. We’re apparently a lot smarter than you think.
But then again, the data Portfolio.com used to create its listing came from Census data, which continually changes as students migrate to and forth from their home away from home. So Gainesville either supports itself on its own merits or consistently attracts the highest-quality students year after year.
We’d like to think it involves a bit of both.
While perhaps not surprising to many as the home to the best public university in Florida, it might surprise many that only about 18 percent of Gainesville’s estimated population of 259,587 has a bachelor’s degree.
Perhaps this statistic, coupled with a high school dropout rating of more than 11 percent in Gainesville, will help the UF students who inevitably propelled Gainesville to its star status on this list to realize Gainesville doesn’t simply end at the university’s boundaries.
Editor's note: The original article incorrectly said Ocala was north of Gainesville.
