Educated in Pittsburgh (how much, high school, college)

[BrianTH]

To me this is a fascinating chart:

http://midwest.chicagofedblogs.org/EduAttain.html

It shows how 11 metropolitan areas in the Rust Belt ranked in terms of high school and college attainment among 118 total MSAs in both 1970 and 2006. Metro Pittsburgh's movement up those charts is really astounding: it went from #69 to #37 in college attainment, and #55 to #3 in HS attainment. Of course in a way this is bittersweet, because it is undoubtedly in part the result of the steel bust.

[Drover]

I also wonder how much of that is attributable to the fact that Pittsburgh has been virtually untouched by the wave of uneducated immigrants that has made its way to other cities, Chicago being the main recipient in the Midwest.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Drover

I also wonder how much of that is attributable to the fact that Pittsburgh has been virtually untouched by the wave of uneducated immigrants that has made its way to other cities, Chicago being the main recipient in the Midwest.

I'm sure that is a contributing factor as well--in fact the relatively few immigrants Pittsburgh does get tend to be highly-educated and may well be increasing, not decreasing, its average educational attainment numbers.