The Rio Grande Valley is getting a tough report card. In a new national ranking of educational attainment, the McAllen‑Edinburg‑Mission and Brownsville‑Harlingen metro areas landed 149th and 148th out of 150 U.S. metropolitan areas, putting the Valley near the very bottom of the list. Other Texas metros, including Beaumont and Corpus Christi, also appeared in the lower tier.
WalletHub's Method And The Rankings
The rankings come from a study by WalletHub, which compared the 150 largest U.S. metropolitan areas across 11 metrics. Those measures included the share of adults with bachelor’s and graduate degrees, public school quality, and racial and gender gaps in educational outcomes.
In that analysis, McAllen‑Edinburg‑Mission ranked 149th overall and Brownsville‑Harlingen ranked 148th. Corpus Christi and Beaumont landed at 140th and 142nd, respectively. The study also shows McAllen near the bottom on indicators like the share of residents with bachelor’s and graduate degrees and overall income levels.
Colleges Are Here, Attainment Isn't
On paper, the Valley does not look like a place that should struggle this much with educational attainment. The region hosts multiple degree‑granting institutions, including South Texas College and various technical campuses. Yet those local resources have not translated into high rates of college degrees across the wider metro areas.
As reported by MySA, colleges sit side by side with relatively low percentages of adults holding bachelor’s and professional degrees. The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, with campuses in Edinburg and Brownsville, is one of the biggest higher‑education players in the area, but its footprint has not yet pushed the overall metro rankings higher.
City Data Versus Metro Measures
Part of the story lies in the difference between city limits and metro boundaries. City‑level data can look more upbeat than the broader regional picture WalletHub used. According to U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, the city of McAllen has roughly 32.5% of adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher in the most recent American Community Survey window. In Brownsville, U.S. Census Bureau figures put the city rate at about 24.5%.
Those snapshots show pockets of higher educational attainment within city boundaries even as the larger metro areas lag. That split helps explain why a metro‑wide lens can produce a different story than single‑city measurements, and it lines up with the income gaps that factor into WalletHub’s methodology.
What Analysts Say
“Higher education doesn’t guarantee better financial opportunities in the future, but it certainly correlates with it,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo wrote in the report, arguing that the most‑educated metros tend to offer pathways from early childhood through graduate programs.
The study also points to pronounced attainment and achievement gaps, including racial and gender disparities and weaker outcomes for low‑income students. Those factors drag down overall scores and help explain why South Texas metros are clustered near the bottom of the national list.
What To Watch Next
Advocates in the region often cite early‑education investments, expanded community‑college capacity, and targeted workforce initiatives as key levers to move those numbers. Policymakers in Austin and local school districts are expected to keep a close eye on graduation rates, postsecondary enrollment, and workforce indicators as the Valley works to turn a strong campus presence into higher degree attainment across its communities.
