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Alex Friedrich

How the Twin Cities stack up against other literate communities

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Minneapolis (#3) and St. Paul (#7) remain unchanged in their Top 10 places of Central Connecticut State University's list of Most Literate Cities in America.

The ranking looks at cities with a population 250,000 or more and considers six indicators of literacy: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and Internet resources.

2010 Rank City 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005
1 Washington, DC 2 3 5 3.5 3
2 Seattle, WA 1 1.5 2 1 1
3 Minneapolis, MN 3 1.5 1 2 2
4 Atlanta, GA 5 6 8 3.5 4
5 Pittsburgh, PA 4 12 9 6 8
6 San Francisco, CA 12 5 7 9 5
7 St. Paul, MN 7 4 3 5 9.5
8 Denver, CO 10 7 4 8 6
9.5 Portland, OR 6 10.5 12 10 11
9.5 St. Louis, MO 11 9 6 12 15

Here's the subcategory of education. It considers the percentage of the adult population with a high school diploma or higher as well as the percentage of the adult population with a bachelor's degree.

Education CITY FINAL RANK
1 Seattle, WA 2
2 Plano, TX 54
3 Raleigh, NC 13
4 Portland, OR 9.5
5 Colorado Springs, CO 25
6 Lincoln, NE 20
7 Washington, DC 1
8 Atlanta, GA 4
9 Charlotte, NC 31.5
10 Honolulu CDP, HI 27
11 Lexington-Fayette, KY 23
12 Minneapolis, MN 3
13 San Francisco, CA 6
14 Anchorage, AK 53
15.5 San Diego, CA 38.5
15.5 Virginia Beach, VA 35
17 Pittsburgh, PA 5
18.5 Boston, MA 12
18.5 Henderson, NV 63
20 Omaha, NE 42
21 Columbus, OH 16
22 St. Paul, MN 7
23.5 Austin, TX 21
23.5 Greensboro, NC 38.5
25.5 Albuquerque, NM 43
25.5 Denver, CO 8
27 Nashville-Davidson, TN 22
28 Wichita, KS 48
29 Fort Wayne, IN 46
30 Kansas City, MO 17
31 San Jose, CA 50.5
32 Tulsa, OK 24
33 Tampa, FL 19
34 New Orleans, LA 15
35 Cincinnati, OH 11
36 Louisville-Jefferson Co.,KY 40
37 Oklahoma City, OK 36
38 Jacksonville, FL 49
39 Mesa, AZ 65
40 Chicago, IL 28
41 Oakland, CA 37
42 New York City, NY 26
43 Indianapolis, IN 34
44 Arlington, TX 71
45 Sacramento, CA 45
46 St. Louis, MO 9.5
47 Aurora, CO 74
48 Tucson, AZ 33
49 Baltimore, MD 18
50 Long Beach, CA 68
51 Glendale, AZ 66
52 Philadelphia, PA 31.5
53 Buffalo, NY 41
54 Los Angeles, CA 61
55 Memphis, TN 55
56 Toledo, OH 47
58 Dallas, TX 44
58 Fort Worth, TX 50.5
58 Houston, TX 60
60.5 Phoenix, AZ 58
60.5 San Antonio, TX 62
62 Milwaukee, WI 29.5
63 Corpus Christi, TX 69.5
64 Las Vegas, NV 52
65 El Paso, TX 69.5
66 Anaheim, CA 72
67 Riverside, CA 59
68 Fresno, CA 64
69 Bakersfield, CA 73
70 Miami, FL 29.5
71 Detroit, MI 56
72 Cleveland, OH 14
73 Stockton, CA 75
74 Newark, NJ 57
75 Santa Ana, CA 67