Forbes.com names Boulder as America’s smartest city

According to Forbes.com, Boulder has it all – brains as well as beauty.

The magazine recently put the town where the Buffalo roam at the top of its list of 25 of America’s Smartest Cities, based on Sperling’s BestPlaces data for metropolitan statistical areas. With nearly 53 percent of its residents 25 and older having a bachelor’s degree or higher; nearly 4 percent with a doctorate; more than 3 percent with a professional degree; and almost 93 percent with a high school diploma, Boulder has highest percentage of educated adults living here.

While the University of Colorado certainly doesn’t hurt Boulder’s ability to attract smart residents, according to Forbes.com, being one of the most environmentally aware cities in the nation and having a plethora of outdoor recreational activities available to everyone from students to professors to the “overwhelmingly young population” draw the intellectually enlightened ones, as well.

The only other Colorado metro area that made the list was Fort Collins-Loveland, which came in at No. 12. More than 40 percent of Fort Collins-Loveland residents age 25 or older have a bachelor’s degree or higher, while 2.58 percent have a doctorate, about 2 percent have a professional degree and nearly 93 percent have graduated high school, according to Forbes.com.

Here are the cities that round out the top 10 communities that round out Forbes.com’s list of America’s Smartest Cities:

1. Boulder, Colo.
2. Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick, Md.
3. Ithaca, NY
4. Ann Arbor, Mich.
5. Corvallis, Ore.
6. Ames, Iowa
7. Lawrence, Kan.
8. Cambridge-Newton-Framingham, Mass.
9. Iowa City, Iowa
10. Columbia, Mo.