Which cities are magnets for young college graduates?
One way to answer the question is to look at the cities attracting growing numbers of young, educated people, as a chart we ran Monday did. Another way is to see which cities have a larger than average percentage of the young and college-educated: people between 25 and 34 years old with a bachelor’s degree.
Measured this way, some surprising cities stand out as skewing young, including Columbus, Baltimore and Salt Lake City.
Denver, Nashville and Portland, Ore., fall into both groups: They each have a disproportionately large and fast-growing group of such residents. In Las Vegas, San Antonio and Riverside, Calif., meanwhile, this population is growing more quickly than in most other metropolitan areas, yet they have a smaller share than any other area. Over all, in the 51 largest metropolitan areas, 5.2 percent of people are 25 to 34 years old and have a four-year college degree. Denver’s share is 7.5 percent, while Riverside’s share is 2.5 percent.
Economists have debated whether jobs follow people or whether people follow jobs. Joe Cortright, who runs City Observatory, the think tank that published the report, said that companies are increasingly locating where large numbers of young, college-educated people live, because young people are pickier about location. One reason is that men and women are both likely to work, so couples seek a place they want to live and then find jobs, as opposed to wives following their husbands’ careers. Where they choose to live matters because a large young, educated work force is the economic engine of a vibrant city.
Cities in which the growth in the population of young graduates lagged overall population growth include Atlanta, Dallas, Charlotte and Raleigh. Cities where the growth was about the same as overall population growth are Memphis, Phoenix, Austin and Richmond. Cities that are attracting this group at a much faster rate than their total population is growing are New Orleans, San Diego, Oklahoma City and Las Vegas.
Where the College Graduates Are
Percentage of the population in 2012 with a college degree and aged 25 to 34, in selected cities.
When big cities like New York and San Francisco become unaffordable for young people to live, they increasingly choose smaller cities like Baltimore and Portland over the suburbs that many in their parents’ generation chose. In Portland, for instance, the number of young college graduates has grown 37 percent since 2000; they now make up 5.6 percent of the population, up from 4.8 percent a decade and a half ago.
In readers’ comments on our first article, there was some fierce city loyalty, including consternation that certain cities weren’t included in our chart. We heard most about Chicago, Seattle and Philadelphia — so for all of you, here are the details. All are popular with the young and educated.
Chicago’s population of young people has climbed 17 percent since 2000, more than Boston’s but less than New York’s, and a higher than average 6 percent of its population is in this group. Seattle’s population of young graduates climbed 27 percent; its share is 6.1 percent. Philadelphia’s climbed 22 percent, and 5.4 percent of its population is young and college-educated, slightly above average.