New Year

It's always nice to start a new year with a dose of optimism, and Rochester makes it surprisingly easy to do so.  The greatest asset of Rochester is undoubtedly its citizenry.  Only a collection of resourceful, creative, and forward-thinking people could have allowed for the region's remarkable resilience and somewhat inexplicable growth over the past thirty years.  And a good deal of evidence points to Rochesterians having the right tools to continue this noteworthy path onward.  In fact, as reported by many local media outlets, Rochester has been noted yet again to have perhaps the most critical tool for future success: intelligence.  Here is a list of the ten metro areas with over 1 million people that have the highest percentage of residents with advanced graduate and professional degrees:

1. Washington (DC)-Arlington-Alexandria (23%)
2. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara (20.7%)
3. Boston-Cambridge-Newton (19.3%)
4. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward (17.8%)
5. Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford (16.1%)
6. Baltimore-Columbia-Towson (15.8%)
7. New York-Newark-Jersey City (15.2%)
8. Raleigh (14.8%)
9. Denver-Aurora-Lakewood (14.1%)
10. Rochester (NY) (14%)

If people outside the region were asked to predict the aforementioned ten metros, they would:

• Not have heard of Rochester or confuse it with another Rochester, or
• Have heard of Rochester but have no idea that the region has a population over 1 million, or
• Have heard of Rochester, know its population, and put it nowhere near the top ten.