Online personal finance website Wallet Hub ranks Raleigh No. 2 and Durham No. 33, behind only Ann Arbor, among the 150 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the United States where the most educated Americans are choosing to settle in a new survey.

“We examined each city across nine key metrics,” said the report. “Among the set are educational attainment, the percentage of workers with jobs in computer, engineering and science fields as well as the quality and size of each metro area’s universities.”

(the full report can be read online.)

Chapel Hill and Greenville weren’t big enough to make the cut, but they would have undoubtedly joined the others that put North Carolina in educational high cotton.

The rankings of the other cities with NCBiotech offices:

  • Wilmington, #37
  • Asheville, #40
  • Winston-Salem, #55
  • Charlotte, #73

The list also included Greensboro, #115; Fayetteville, #116; and Hickory, #135.

Among other findings:

  • Winston-Salem ranked #3 for the highest number of physicians per capita, behind only Akron and Little Rock.
  • Raleigh has the fifth-highest percentage of workers with computer, engineering and science jobs – trailing only San Jose, Huntsville, Ann Arbor and Washington, D.C.
  • Winston-Salem ranked #5 in “highest average quality of top universities,” trailing only New Haven, San Jose, Nashville and South Bend.

Bottom line: If you have a life science or tech business, you need educated people to make it go. And North Carolina is where a lot of educated people are going.

Note: Jim Shamp is director of public relations for the N.C. Biotechnology Center.

(C) NC Biotech Center