Intelligence Density and the Creative Class

Doofus writes "The Atlantic has an interesting review of some open-sourced work by Rob Pitingolo about the comparative educational attainment levels of various metropolitan areas. While people are now capable of being far more mobile than in generations past, many people remain within 100 miles or so of where they were born. For the technology-partition of the creative class, this is less likely to be the case, in my personal experience. Do we technical people put interesting work and the concentration of human educational capital ahead of other considerations when deciding on a move? Or is it more complicated? Is it more about the fact that the creative jobs are where the creative people are?"

Comments

Re:it's more complicated

[oakgrove]

At the risk of a faux pas replying to myself, here's the list normalized for overall population density:

Rank City % Above Expected Concentration
1 Oklahoma City 544%
2 Nashville 167%
3 Jacksonville 156%
4 Salt Lake City 87%
5 Kansas City 84%
6 Seattle 78%
7 Raleigh 73%
8 San Francisco 61%
9 New Orleans 54%
10 Atlanta 50%
11 Austin 48%
12 Virginia Beach 46%
13 Washington 45%
14 Charlotte 43%
15 Louisville 42%
16 Portland 35%
17 Birmingham 32%
18 San Diego 31%
19 Minneapolis 30%
20 Orlando 28%
21 Denver 27%
22 Boston 22%
23 St. Paul 13%
24 Indianapolis 11%
25 Richmond 9%
26 Tampa 9%
27 San Jose 8%
28 Pittsburgh 6%
29 Oakland 6%
30 Columbus 5%
31 Cincinnatti -3%
32 New York City -10%
33 Sacramento -11%
34 Houston -11%
35 Memphis -12%
36 Dallas -12%
37 Chicago -15%
38 Los Angeles -17%
39 Phoenix -23%
40 Providence -23%
41 San Antonio -25%
42 St. Louis -25%
43 Balitmore -30%
44 Miami -32%
45 Las Vegas -34%
46 Riverside -37%
47 Buffalo -38%
48 Philadelphia -41%
49 Milwaukee -43%
50 Cleveland -61%
51 Hartford -62%
52 Detroit -68%

I find this much more interesting than the face palm-esque pop. density ranking original list. Interesting how 7 of the top ten are southern cities.