Raleigh-Durham is smarter than you are!

The Triangle is the "SMARTEST" metro area in the U.S. Because we are so smart, of course, we knew that already.

But it is important for the rest of you pusillanimous poltroons to overcome your unexpurgated nescience, and worship us as your divine daddies! Complete list here....but for the top five:

1. Raleigh-Durham, NC....2. San Franciso-Bay Area, CA
3. Boston, MA............4. Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN
5. Denver, CO

Two factors worked in Ral-Dur's favor, I think. (Well, three, since Raldur sounds like the name of one of the Elvish lords in Lothlorien).

1. Raleigh-Durham is less than half the size of the other areas in the top five. Since the ranking is done "per capita," this is a big help. Not clear WHY it is per capita, but there you are. On the other hand, this Forbes story used percentages, which is even sillier than an indexed per capita measure. The Triangle was only 14th in the Forbes ranking, well behind that metropolis of intellect situated at (wait for it...) Columbia, MO. Columbia came in at #11. (If you could see me, you would see my, "I don't THINK so!" face right now.)
2. The ranking appears to have been conducted back when Angus and Ms. Angus* were living in Raleigh-Durham. An enormous advantage to ANY metro area to have that kind of brain power. It's like we were cheating, bringing in ringers.

I do have to give a big KPC shout-out to #55, the worst metro area in the U.S.: Fresno. Here is the description....

#55, FRESNO (CA.) Metro Area Population: 1,335,429
Daily Beast IQ Score: 3
The race to the bottom wasn’t even close. The largest city in California’s San Joaquin breadbasket, Fresno, had deficiencies across the board. College education (less than 20 percent of the local population have four-year degrees), graduate studies, academic institutions (not much besides Fresno State), book purchases, voter engagement—it ranked in the worst 5 percent in almost all of our categories. Problems with gangs and crystal meth tend to deter the best and brightest.

*(And also Mr. Tootie, of course)