The Smartest States In The USA: Where Does North Dakota Rank?

Just how smart are we in North Dakota?

And I don't mean "smart a$$es".  If that were the case we might be number one with a bullet.  No, I'm talking about real smarts.

New research by the free online education platform Guru99.com has the answer to how smart we are in North Dakota.

They analyzed six different metrics including, average IQ, graduation rates, percentage of the population with low literacy rates, average SAT scores, percentage of the states that don't have a high school diploma or GED, and GDP per capita.  These categories were all given a score out of 60.  That's how the states were ranked.

What's really interesting about this study is that not only did North Dakota score well, but so did all of our neighboring states.

Before I tell you how NoDak did in the smarts department, let's take a look at the surrounding states around us.

Minnesota is the "brainiac" of our region.  In fact, they came in at #2 in the entire country only trailing #1 ranked New Hamshire.  High School graduation rates and SAT scores soared Minnesota to the #2 ranking in America.

Montana is no dummy either.  The Big Sky state came in at #5.  Strong high school graduation rates and SAT scores helped the high-achieving Montanans.

South Dakota is a bit of a show-off too when it comes to brains.  North Dakota's red-headed stepchild came in at #8 in the country.  The land of Mount Rushmore did especially well in the GDP department which means higher-paying jobs.

And finally, North Dakota did very well.  The Peace Garden State came in at #6 in the country.  We scored well in graduation rates, SAT scores, and GDP.

I think it safe to say that our "flyover" states get overlooked for a lot of things and "smarts" is definitely one of them.  The upper Midwest deserves more credit, and we're not a bunch of uneducated hicks as some of the rest of the country likes to paint us.  Suck on that California.