The 10 Dumbest Places In Nebraska For 2024


The dumbest places in Nebraska are Schuyler and Lexington for 2024 based on Saturday Night Science.

The unfortunate fact of the matter is that some places in the Cornhusker 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 Nebraska have the highest percentage of adults without a high school degree.

A recent study we published found that Nebraska is the 10th smartest state in the United States, with an average IQ of 101.

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


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


Dumbest Cities In Nebraska 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 5,000, leaving us 30 cities in Nebraska to rank. You can take a look at the data below.

For more Nebraska reading, check out:

The 10 Dumbest Places In Nebraska For 2024

Schuyler, NE

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

8
/10
Population: 6,516
% Adult High School Dropout: 39.0%
% Highly Educated: 7.0%
More on Schuyler: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Lexington, NE

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 10,662
% Adult High School Dropout: 37.0%
% Highly Educated: 12.0%
More on Lexington: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Grand Island, NE

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

6
/10
Population: 52,822
% Adult High School Dropout: 17.0%
% Highly Educated: 21.0%
More on Grand Island: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Crete, NE

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 7,093
% Adult High School Dropout: 30.0%
% Highly Educated: 23.0%
More on Crete: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Fremont, NE

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 27,230
% Adult High School Dropout: 12.0%
% Highly Educated: 21.0%
More on Fremont: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Columbus, NE

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

7
/10
Population: 24,035
% Adult High School Dropout: 10.0%
% Highly Educated: 24.0%
More on Columbus: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Beatrice, NE

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 12,237
% Adult High School Dropout: 8.0%
% Highly Educated: 17.0%
More on Beatrice: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Sidney, NE

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

6
/10
Population: 6,407
% Adult High School Dropout: 9.0%
% Highly Educated: 22.0%
More on Sidney: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

North Platte, NE

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 23,309
% Adult High School Dropout: 8.0%
% Highly Educated: 18.0%
More on North Platte: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Alliance, NE

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 8,118
% Adult High School Dropout: 8.0%
% Highly Educated: 19.0%
More on Alliance: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Methodology: How we determined the dumbest cities in the Cornhusker 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 Nebraska:

  • % 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 Nebraska from dumbest to brightest.

For this ranking, we used every Nebraska city with at least 5,000 residents. We updated this article for 2024, and it’s our tenth time ranking the dumbest cities in Nebraska.

There You Have It – Now That You’re Asleep

If you’re measuring the locations in Nebraska 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 Nebraska are Schuyler, Lexington, Grand Island, Crete, Fremont, Columbus, Beatrice, Sidney, North Platte, and Alliance.

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

  1. Gretna
  2. Papillion
  3. Chadron

For more Nebraska reading, check out:

Dumbest Cities In Nebraska For 2024

Rank City Population % Adult High School Dropout % Highly Educated
1 Schuyler, NE 6,516 39.0% 7.0%
2 Lexington, NE 10,662 37.0% 12.0%
3 Grand Island, NE 52,822 17.0% 21.0%
4 Crete, NE 7,093 30.0% 23.0%
5 Fremont, NE 27,230 12.0% 21.0%
6 Columbus, NE 24,035 10.0% 24.0%
7 Beatrice, NE 12,237 8.0% 17.0%
8 Sidney, NE 6,407 9.0% 22.0%
9 North Platte, NE 23,309 8.0% 18.0%
10 Alliance, NE 8,118 8.0% 19.0%
11 Scottsbluff, NE 14,454 12.0% 27.0%
12 Hastings, NE 25,098 9.0% 26.0%
13 Holdrege, NE 5,494 9.0% 27.0%
14 Ralston, NE 6,462 9.0% 28.0%
15 Norfolk, NE 25,883 7.0% 25.0%
16 Gering, NE 8,582 8.0% 27.0%
17 Plattsmouth, NE 6,585 5.0% 20.0%
18 Mccook, NE 7,412 7.0% 27.0%
19 York, NE 8,101 7.0% 27.0%
20 Omaha, NE 489,201 9.0% 39.0%
21 Kearney, NE 33,809 8.0% 38.0%
22 Bellevue, NE 63,336 6.0% 33.0%
23 Seward, NE 7,667 6.0% 34.0%
24 Blair, NE 7,813 6.0% 36.0%
25 Lincoln, NE 290,531 7.0% 41.0%
26 La Vista, NE 16,713 3.0% 33.0%
27 Wayne, NE 5,973 5.0% 35.0%
28 Chadron, NE 5,255 6.0% 47.0%
29 Papillion, NE 24,016 3.0% 46.0%
30 Gretna, NE 9,019 2.0% 51.0%
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.

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