The 10 Dumbest Places In Massachusetts For 2024


The dumbest places in Massachusetts are Lawrence and Fall River for 2024 based on Saturday Night Science.

The unfortunate fact of the matter is that some places in the Bay State have a larger percent of their population that never graduated from high school.

While the emphasis on going to college might be overblown, the fact is that not graduating from high school puts you at a significant disadvantage on average. Educational attainment might not be the best way to measure one person’s intelligence, but it does shine a light on the state.

We will use Saturday Night Science to determine what places in Massachusetts have the highest percentage of adults without a high school degree.

A recent study we published found that Massachusetts is the 2nd smartest state in the United States, with an average IQ of 103.

But that doesn’t mean that a few cities in Massachusetts are a bit slower than others due to a lack of basic education.


Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table


Dumbest Cities In Massachusetts Map

Don’t freak out.

Some places are just smarter than others, but that says nothing about the character of the people living there. It’s another data point a real estate agent would never tell you.

For this ranking, we only looked at cities with populations greater than 12,000, leaving us 39 cities in Massachusetts to rank. You can take a look at the data below.

For more Massachusetts reading, check out:

The 10 Dumbest Places In Massachusetts For 2024

Lawrence, MA

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 88,067
% Adult High School Dropout: 28.0%
% Highly Educated: 15.0%
More on Lawrence: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Fall River, MA

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 93,638
% Adult High School Dropout: 24.0%
% Highly Educated: 17.0%
More on Fall River: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Chelsea, MA

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

7
/10
Population: 39,890
% Adult High School Dropout: 32.0%
% Highly Educated: 22.0%
More on Chelsea: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

New Bedford, MA

Source: Wikipedia User PenitentWhaler | CC BY-SA 4.0
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 100,620
% Adult High School Dropout: 22.0%
% Highly Educated: 18.0%
More on New Bedford: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Lynn, MA

Source: Wikipedia User Jameslwoodward | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

8
/10
Population: 100,653
% Adult High School Dropout: 23.0%
% Highly Educated: 22.0%
More on Lynn: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Springfield, MA

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 155,305
% Adult High School Dropout: 21.0%
% Highly Educated: 19.0%
More on Springfield: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Holyoke, MA

Source: Wikipedia User John Phelan | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10
Population: 38,210
% Adult High School Dropout: 22.0%
% Highly Educated: 22.0%
More on Holyoke: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Brockton, MA

Source: Wikipedia User John Phelan | CC BY 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

7
/10
Population: 104,713
% Adult High School Dropout: 18.0%
% Highly Educated: 21.0%
More on Brockton: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Gardner, MA

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10
Population: 21,090
% Adult High School Dropout: 13.0%
% Highly Educated: 18.0%
More on Gardner: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Everett, MA

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 48,685
% Adult High School Dropout: 20.0%
% Highly Educated: 23.0%
More on Everett: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Methodology: How we determined the dumbest cities in the Bay State

We realize that formal education is only part of it when it comes to being intelligent, but on the other hand, knowing the difference between they’re, their, and there is always going to make you look pretty stupid.

So, we used Saturday Night Science to narrow down our criteria to focus on a city’s educational opportunities and what percentage of the population takes advantage of those opportunities.

In short, we came up with these criteria to determine the dumbest cities in Massachusetts:

  • % of the city’s population with less than a high school education (Age 25+)
  • % of city’s population with a college degree (Age 25+)

We got the data from the U.S. Census 2018-2022 American Community Survey.

Then, our algorithm generates a rank for each place in these categories. After crunching all the numbers, a ranking of the cities in Massachusetts from dumbest to brightest.

For this ranking, we used every Massachusetts city with at least 12,000 residents. We updated this article for 2024, and it’s our tenth time ranking the dumbest cities in Massachusetts.

There You Have It – Now That You’re Asleep

If you’re measuring the locations in Massachusetts where there are a high number of dropouts and adults who never received a formal education, this is an accurate ranking.

The dumbest cities in Massachusetts are Lawrence, Fall River, Chelsea, New Bedford, Lynn, Springfield, Holyoke, Brockton, Gardner, and Everett.

If you’re also curious enough, here are the smartest places in Massachusetts, according to science:

  1. Newton
  2. Newburyport
  3. Cambridge

For more Massachusetts reading, check out:

Dumbest Cities In Massachusetts For 2024

Rank City Population % Adult High School Dropout % Highly Educated
1 Lawrence, MA 88,067 28.0% 15.0%
2 Fall River, MA 93,638 24.0% 17.0%
3 Chelsea, MA 39,890 32.0% 22.0%
4 New Bedford, MA 100,620 22.0% 18.0%
5 Lynn, MA 100,653 23.0% 22.0%
6 Springfield, MA 155,305 21.0% 19.0%
7 Holyoke, MA 38,210 22.0% 22.0%
8 Brockton, MA 104,713 18.0% 21.0%
9 Gardner, MA 21,090 13.0% 18.0%
10 Everett, MA 48,685 20.0% 23.0%
11 Taunton, MA 59,436 15.0% 23.0%
12 Revere, MA 60,577 18.0% 24.0%
13 Lowell, MA 114,737 18.0% 28.0%
14 Fitchburg, MA 41,621 13.0% 24.0%
15 Chicopee, MA 55,441 12.0% 24.0%
16 Worcester, MA 204,191 14.0% 33.0%
17 North Adams, MA 12,937 11.0% 27.0%
18 Westfield, MA 40,794 11.0% 32.0%
19 Attleboro, MA 46,384 10.0% 32.0%
20 Malden, MA 65,463 13.0% 43.0%
21 Haverhill, MA 67,273 9.0% 30.0%
22 Leominster, MA 43,620 10.0% 33.0%
23 Quincy, MA 100,981 12.0% 46.0%
24 Peabody, MA 54,204 9.0% 35.0%
25 Marlborough, MA 41,391 10.0% 41.0%
26 Boston, MA 665,945 12.0% 53.0%
27 Pittsfield, MA 43,730 8.0% 34.0%
28 Gloucester, MA 29,830 6.0% 39.0%
29 Salem, MA 44,541 7.0% 49.0%
30 Woburn, MA 40,992 6.0% 48.0%
31 Waltham, MA 64,711 8.0% 56.0%
32 Medford, MA 61,748 7.0% 56.0%
33 Somerville, MA 80,464 8.0% 67.0%
34 Northampton, MA 28,245 7.0% 63.0%
35 Beverly, MA 42,414 3.0% 53.0%
36 Melrose, MA 29,477 5.0% 61.0%
37 Cambridge, MA 117,962 5.0% 80.0%
38 Newburyport, MA 18,356 3.0% 64.0%
39 Newton, MA 88,453 2.0% 81.0%
About Nick Johnson

Nick Johnson earned his masters in Business Administration from the Drucker School At Claremont Graduate University. He has written for 39 publications across the country and ran the media relations department at Movoto, a real estate portal based in San Francisco. He has been featured in over 500 publications as an expert in real estate and as an authority on real estate trends.

Nick's the creator of the HomeSnacks YouTube channel that now has over 260,000 subscribers and is an excellent source to learn about different parts of the country.

4 thoughts on “The 10 Dumbest Places In Massachusetts For 2024

  1. Sam Sparkes….your an a-hole. Do you even care to add the high number of immigrants in some of these areas? Who have come to this country with no education and make something out of themselves. Who are a lot smarter than most people were born here. Doubt it. So before you come out with your “science and data” do a little more homework before you judge a city and THEIR citizens.

  2. the City of Holyoke has been taken over by Puerto Rican’s. Therefore, the population has gone down over 15,000.00. The City has been ruined.

  3. The most ignorant people in fall river aren’t necessarily the immigrants, since they actually have an excuse.

  4. It’s kind of funny to see people upset because he believes that the Immigrant Spanish Guatemalan whatever else are the ones that are bringing whatever City down to being one of the dumbest in the state but I think they are forgetting the fact that if one is undocumented they are not in the study because they don’t have stats on the undocumented ones. If they did holy hell did Bo more places hire on that list and some that would be low on that list. Also doesn’t help when a good majority of the top 10 list range from 25 to 37% of adults didn’t have even a high school diploma. If the adults don’t have education how the hell are the children going to have education? Yeah they may go to school but don’t do that great because they don’t understand the language fully and when they leave school they go home she either a single parent home or even both parents home where again up to 37% in some areas the adults don’t even have a high school education. So you can be a 17 year old junior or senior in high school and actually be more educated than a 45 year old grown man or woman and that right there the adult or adults should instead of trying to pass blame on school systems and whatever else take a look at them self and ask why is my child doing well in school? They actually maybe doing okay in school but when they have homework and they bring that homework home to a household where up to 37% of parents don’t even have an education that on their child level how are they supposed to teach the children or do or help the children with homework when they themselves couldn’t do the work. Not just the top 10 list but in general the state of Massachusetts adults or over the age of 25 should be ashamed of himself because they can’t even do this 1516 year old child’s homework with them because they don’t know what the hell they’re doing. I have no problem if Massachusetts or the United States did it what China did where you can only have no more than two children after that you get tied up because you have people out there five six seven kids but neither parent work if it’s a double parent home and if it’s a single parent home a very good majority of them are on welfare and or disability yet those are the people that the Next Generation or their own children have to learn from good luck with that. Sad when someone who has a child and say the 10th 11th grade is smarter than up to 37% their own parents or parent. That’s absolutely horrendous and believe me I live in one of the top 10 dumbest cities per se I guess but I know I have a high school diploma and a college degree but I don’t have any children maybe I should and that would bring that number up and lower other number. Also if you look at that list of top 10 what’s really striking is as far as like Springfield goes four or five cities around Springfield are on the list as well and then when you come towards Boston you have three or four cities that are basically bordering them self . If you took those ten off the list and eliminated those 10 cities hypothetically Massachusetts is one of the smartest places in the country . Also Lynn was number 9 on the list it is for high schools in Lynn and factually one of those high schools sends more kids to Ivy League schools each year then the other three combined . I can see why someone made get upset when they see a list like that but it’s very concentrated certain pots and western Mass Worcester which is in Central Mass and then every other one in Easton Mass . I can only imagine if they actually fact it in the non documented people because if they did the list wouldn’t change much the only thing that would change would probably be the order. I have no problem with Massachusetts in general but surely if I was to have a child I do not think I would raise them in Massachusetts just for the simple fact of how unintelligent a good majority of adult are in the state. Not sure where I would never want to raise a child if it had to be in Massachusetts wouldn’t be where I’m from because they’re on that list and would not be one of the other nine places. I’m more so would try to find a happy medium and choose an area that either was on the opposite end of the spectrum or at least the top 30 or so in the state not number one or not 11.. Because I would never have guessed Massachusetts had that many uneducated adults living here it’s absolutely mind-blowing then you think of those adults who have umpteenth children and those children are going to be the ones running this country and being doctors and lawyers and whatever else and they get older how the hell are they going to do that when they can’t even go to their own parent and ask him a simple High School question because the parents couldn’t even answer it. Other than the ten dumbest cities in this state if you look at the list of all 50 states New England hold number 1 number 2 number 3 number 6 number 11 in 14 as far as overall best states. I feel bad for the children coming up right now I’m not sure who they have to look 2 for help with school work or whatever and be when the person did more likely would go to their parents I don’t have an education and or a job. Mind blowing

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