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Deep South Texas has once again earned a dubious distinction. The Rio Grande Valley’s largest cities are among the least educated in the nation, according to a new analysis by personal finance site, WalletHub.
Of 150 metropolitan areas across the United States that WalletHub looked at, the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission and Brownsville-Harlingen metros are the second- and third-worst educated cities in America, respectively. But other areas in Texas weren’t much better, including the Beaumont-Port Arthur metro and the Corpus Christi metro, which rounded out the bottom 10 in WalletHub’s 2026 ranking of the “Most & Least Educated Cities in America.“
Source: WalletHub
In order to determine where a metro ranked, WalletHub evaluated several variables to develop weighted scores “across two key dimensions, including ‘Educational Attainment’ and ‘Quality of Education & Attainment Gap,” the company said in its June 29 report. That included factors such as how many adults aged 25 years and older had earned a high school diploma, college degree, or professional degree; the quality of the public school systems within a metro, racial and gender education gaps, and achievement gaps among students from low-income families.
The Chase Tower is seen at dusk from downtown McAllen, the largest city in Hidalgo County in the Rio Grande Valley. Recently, WalletHub named the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission metropolitan area the least-educated in Texas, and the second-worst educated in the United States. (Dina Arévalo)
McAllen (150) and Brownsville (149) metros came in dead last for both the percentages of their populations that have earned associate degrees, and those who have earned high school diplomas. According to WalletHub, the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission metro has two times fewer “college experienced adults” than the highest-ranked city, Ann Arbor, Michigan, which is where the University of Michigan is located.
However, only McAllen was among the five metros across the nation with the lowest percentage of both bachelor’s degree and professional degree holders. In both categories, McAllen ranked 146th out of 150 U.S. metros. McAllen also ranked as the metro with the lowest income level at 149 out of 150 while Corpus Christi came in at No. 123.
The Valley’s low showing isn’t due to a lack of learning opportunities. The region is home to a number of institutes of higher learning. Among them, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley – which is jointly located in Edinburg and Brownsville – Texas A&M University Higher Education Center at McAllen, South Texas College, and Our Lady of the Lake University – RGV, which all offer bachelor degree programs, as well as several junior colleges and technical schools, including Texas Southmost College, and Texas State Technical College Harlingen.
Traffic flows down East 12th Street toward the intersection of East 12th Street in downtown Brownsville on Friday, December 13, 2025. Recently, WalletHub named the Brownsville-Harlingen metro the second least-educated city in Texas, and the third-worst in the United States. (Dina Arévalo)
Texas’ least-educated cities:
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McAllen-Edinburg-Mission 149
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Brownsville-Harlingen 148
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San Antonio-New Braunfels 100
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Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land 88
Texas’ best-educated cities:
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Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 67
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Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown 9
This article originally published at South Texas sinks to the bottom of ‘best educated’ cities ranking.
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