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According to the Census, 44.9% of Pittsburgh MSA residents between the ages of 25 and 34 have a Bachelor's degree or higher compared to 37.7% in Cincinnati and 35.2% in Cleveland. As stated before, the Census (as well as your source) does not assort the data by race/ethnicity. If you focused just on non-Hispanic White educational attainment, all of these cities are probably similar. That's likely why there's no significant difference in non-Hispanic White income among these cities.
Well gee golly **** me; if Pittsburgh is such a terrible place compared to Raleigh, then how the hell were there 148,055 more college-educated people in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area in 2013 than there were in 2000? Shouldn't everybody be "fleeing in droves" to wherever else? How the hell does the college-educated population trend stand in such shocking contrast to the total population trend? Whatever Raleigh's increase in this population is, it merely complements their total population trend, as opposed to brazenly defying it like it does in Pittsburgh.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Craziaskowboi
If there's absolutely no reason to choose Pittsburgh over Raleigh, then why the hell didn't those 148,055 extra college-educated people just move to Raleigh instead? In order for a metropolitan area to grow its college-educated population by 11,389 per year over a span of 13 years the way Pittsburgh did, it has to be doing something right, because nobody is obliged to either move there or stay there after graduating from college. Those 148,055 new college-educated people chose Pittsburgh, regardless of all the milk and honey in Raleigh.
Just like the 81,707 chose Cleveland "regardless of all the milk and honey in Raleigh." They are still blue-collar metros where the overwhelming majority of Whites have not obtained a college degree. There's no way to twist that.
Let's get a reality check for all of our Chamber of Commerce boosters. Here is non-Hispanic White income for the 100 largest MSAs.
Washington - $109,460
San Jose - $104,398
Bridgeport - $102,941
San Francisco - $100,172
New York - $85,819
Baltimore - $83,200
Boston - $82,903
Houston - $80,351
Honolulu - $79,299
Los Angeles - $78,973
Hartford - $77,690
Seattle - $75,581
San Diego - $75,368
Chicago - $74,759
Philadelphia - $74,615
Denver - $74,882
Minneapolis - $74,455 Raleigh - $74,401
Dallas - $73,595
Austin - $72,584
Richmond - $71,807
New Haven - $70,093
Atlanta - $69,485
Norfolk - $69,288
Worcester - $68,656
Salt Lake - $68,013
San Antonio - $67,352
Ogden - $66,680
Sacramento - $66,178
Charleston - $65,962
Huntsville - $65,926
Albany - $65,886
Baton Rouge - $65,765
Des Moines - $65,415
Jackson - $64,780
Durham - $64,670
Memphis - $64,297
Kansas City - $63,513
Allentown - $63,810
Stockton - $62,487
Madison - $63,674
Colorado Springs - $63,088
Omaha - $62,947
Portland - $62,840
Savannah - $62,724
St. Louis - $62,622
Milwaukee - $62,602
Charlotte - $62,485
Provo - $62,382
Harrisburg - $62,281
Columbus - $62,109
Providence - $61,624
New Orleans - $61,279
Detroit - $61,205
Cincinnati - $60,989
Miami - $60,785
Bakersfield - $60,522
Phoenix - $60,233
Springfield - $60,105
Fresno - $59,808
Oklahoma City - $59,191
Indianapolis - $58,949
Nashville - $58,600
Jacksonville - $58,589
Cleveland - $58,394
Columbia - $58,350
Grand Rapids - $58,196
Augusta - $58,184
Las Vegas - $57,510
Hagerstown - $56,886
Birmingham - $56,858
Wichita - $56,777
Rochester - $56,474
Orlando - $55,806
Buffalo - $55,758
El Paso - $55,669 Pittsburgh - $55,555
Tallahassee - $55,535
Syracuse - $55,368
Albuquerque - $54,917
Sarasota - $54,801
Little Rock - $54,774
Akron - $54,374
Boise - $53,662
Roanoke - $52,430
Tucson - $51,459
Dayton - $51,250
Louisville - $52,155
Cape Coral - $51,629
Toledo - $50,792
Greensboro - $50,770
Spokane - $50,690
Palm Bay - $50,505
Tampa - $50,287
Chattanooga - $50,187
Greenville - $49,941
Winston Salem - $49,506
McAllen - $49,049
Knoxville - $47,725
Lakeland - $47,208
Scranton - $46,402
Daytona Beach - $45,704
Youngstown - $44,935
Last edited by BajanYankee; 11-11-2015 at 09:11 AM..
By the way, Raleigh is a state capital, and Pittsburgh is not. Being a state capital greatly helps a metropolitan area in terms of both income and educational attainment. So if Pittsburgh is lucky to have its colleges and universities, then Raleigh is doubly lucky to have the state government of North Carolina to go along with its colleges and universities.
Eh. There are plenty of non-state capitals that have higher Non-Hispanic White income than Pittsburgh (see list above). "Old" people can't be the reason why Pittsburgh has lower White income than Buffalo, which is not exactly a yuppie magnet these days. It can't be a large student presence either. Nor can it be poorer people on the outskirts of the metro since median income for Whites in Allegheny County is only slightly higher ($57,452).
So Pittsburgh is the country's 23rd largest MSA. Of the Top 100 largest MSAs in the United States, it ranks 77th in Non-Hispanic White income.
You should well know that raw income numbers are extremely misleading. Cost-of-living differences are increasingly dramatic that's it's laughable to claim that many large cities have "higher" incomes.
Here are the cost-adjusted median annual wage numbers for both metro areas:
Somewhat of a difference, but I'm sure there is even more earnings parity for college degree holders, given that the Raleigh area has higher educational attainment overall, which inflates its median.
Note that Pittsburgh is also above cities like New York and Chicago, and on par with San Francisco, even with their more highly educated workforces. This indicates that college-educated workers in the Pittsburgh area have a pretty high standard-of-living.
You should well know that raw income numbers are extremely misleading. Cost-of-living differences are increasingly dramatic that's it's laughable to claim that many large cities have "higher" incomes.
Here are the cost-adjusted median annual wage numbers for both metro areas:
Somewhat of a difference, but I'm sure there is even more earnings parity for college degree holders, given that the Raleigh area has higher educational attainment overall, which inflates its average. Note that Pittsburgh is also above cities like New York and Chicago, and on par with San Francisco.
He's/Shes well aware of this, they just like to play the statistics game in their favor and hope nobody calls them out on it.
Nobody's arguing or claiming Pittsburgh's a wealthier city or has wealthier minorities yet he/she continues to post statistics arguing this.
You should well know that raw income numbers are extremely misleading. Cost-of-living differences are increasingly dramatic that's it's laughable to claim that many large cities have "higher" incomes.
Here are the cost-adjusted median annual wage numbers for both metro areas:
Somewhat of a difference, but I'm sure there is even more earnings parity for college degree holders, given that the Raleigh area has higher educational attainment overall, which inflates its median. Note that Pittsburgh is also above cities like New York and Chicago, and on par with San Francisco, even with their more highly educated workforces.
They aren't misleading. Those are numbers for Non-Hispanic White income. The reason I chose Non-Hispanic White income is that cities like NYC, Chicago and Los Angeles have tons of immigrants that drag median household income down.
$77,401 in Raleigh is the equivalent of $82,934 in Pittsburgh.
I'm not even sure why anyone would make an objection here since Raleigh isn't some super high cost metro on the West Coast. It's a sprawling, low density metro in the South with no unions to prop up wages like Northeastern and Midwestern metros.
And yes, educational attainment rates "inflate" median income. That's obvious.
Last edited by BajanYankee; 11-11-2015 at 09:52 AM..
He's/Shes well aware of this, they just like to play the statistics game in their favor and hope nobody calls them out on it.
Nobody's arguing or claiming Pittsburgh's a wealthier city or has wealthier minorities yet he/she continues to post statistics arguing this.
Okay, man.
I wasn't aware that Buffalo, El Paso, Birmingham, Cleveland, Tallahassee and Omaha were high cost metros that make any comparison against Pittsburgh unfair. White people in all of these cities earn more than they do in Pittsburgh.
They aren't misleading. Those are numbers for Non-Hispanic White income. The reason I chose Non-Hispanic White income is that cities like NYC, Chicago and Los Angeles have tons of immigrants that drag median household income down.
Although I understand the thought exercise, immigrants still count as far as the economic picture of an area, so it's disingenuous to leave them out.
But if you're going to segment race, there's no reason not to segment educational attainment, also. And the point still stands--the numbers indicate that college degree holders in Pittsburgh do pretty darn well as far as incomes are concerned.
There is something extremely strange about a person who sits around all day every day looking up / posting /changing statistics on this and similar threads, is completely obsessed with getting the last word, and for some reason is intent on putting down a certain city that they don't live in and don't even know much about personally. I suggest the rest of you ignore that person. This site would be much better if moderators didn't allow geeky, OCD fanatics to derail every thread about certain cities.
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