Here Are The 10 Smartest Cities In North Dakota To Live In

North Dakota has higher average SAT scores than the nation's average, higher graduation rates, and has some great colleges and universities that people from all over the world attend. But which cities in North Dakota are considered the smartest? We ranked the biggest cities in North Dakota based on data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau and considered both the high school graduation rate as well as the percentage of adults with higher education in each city.

1. Fargo

Our top city is Fargo - 94.6 percent of its adult residents have a high school diploma, and 39 percent of those people have a bachelor's degree or higher. It is home to NDSU.

2. West Fargo

West Fargo ranks just barely below number one. 94.1 percent of adult residents have a high school diploma and 33.8 have a bachelor's degree or more. This picture is just for fun - It's of the one room school house in Bonanzaville, located in West Fargo.

3. Grand Forks

Coming in at a close third is Grand Forks. 92.4 percent of the adults in Grand Forks have a high school diploma and 34.9 percent with a college degree. The oldest university in the state, UND, is located here.

4. Bismarck

Bismarck ranks fourth with 92.9 percent of the residents with a high school diploma and 33.6 percent who went on to get their bachelor's degrees.

5. Minot

Minot has a graduation rate of 93.0 percent, which would rank it just barely higher than Bismarck, but it is a bit lower in adults with a bachelor's degree or higher, at 27 percent.

6. Mandan

Just behind fifth is Mandan. It has the same percentage of high school graduates as the entire state does on average - 90.9 percent. 24.6 percent of its residents possess a bachelor's degree or higher.

7. Valley City

Valley City is ranked seventh because of its drop in high school graduates compared to the others. At only 87.2 percent, it is less than a few of the following cities. However, it has a much higher percentage of college graduates - 29.5 percent - which is why it ranks here.

8. Williston

Williston comes in very close, almost tied, with Jamestown. The high school graduation rate - 89.3 percent - is a bit higher, but only 22.4 percent of those people went on to get a diploma through higher education.

9. Jamestown

Jamestown enters the ranks at ninth. The graduation rate is 85.9 percent, which is actually a lower than our tenth ranked city, but it has a higher percentage of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher - at 24.6 percent.

10. Wahpeton

Home to NDSCS, Wahpeton is just behind Williston. 89.6 percent of the residents have a high school diploma, but only 20.8 percent of these went on to get a higher education and successfully graduated with a bachelor's or more.

This is just one interpretation of the statistics; there are a lot of factors that go into education stats. Plus, North Dakota is pretty smart in general. Is there a city missing you think deserves to be on this list, or a rank you would have changed? Let us know in the comments.