Newton Ranked One of 'Smartest Suburbs' in America

Newton was ranked one of the 10 smartest suburbs in the country.

The real estate service Movoto last week compiled its “10 Smartest Suburbs in America” report and Newton was ranked No. 8. Cambridge was ranked No. 4 and Santa Monica, Calif. was ranked No. 1.

The rankings were based on the following factors:

• Colleges and universities per capita
• Public libraries per capita
• Museums per capita
• Percentage of students with bachelor’s degrees or higher
• High school graduation rate
• GreatSchools.org rating (based on test scores for the area)

Here’s Movoto’s writeup for Newton:

Boston, MA may get the credit for a rich culture and academia, but that’s just because it’s close to this intelligent suburb, are we right, Newton residents?

Of all of the suburbs we looked at, this one had the very highest percentage of residents with bachelor’s degrees or higher: 75.04 percent. That’s almost three times the national average.

This city isn’t just impressive at the college level—it also scored well for its public schools, with a rating of nine out of 10, and, with a 95 percent high school graduation rate, ranked the ninth best in this category.

Photo credit: MIT