The 10 Dumbest Places In Oregon For 2023


The dumbest places in Oregon are Milton-Freewater and Sweet Home for 2023 based on Saturday Night Science.

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

A recent study we published found that Oregon is actually the 22nd smartest state in the United States, with an average IQ of 100.

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

After crunching the numbers, we ranked the ten dumbest cities in the Beaver State.

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 73 cities in Oregon to rank. You can take a look at the data below.

For more Oregon reading, check out:


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


The 10 Dumbest Places In Oregon For 2023

Milton-Freewater, OR

Source: Wikipedia User Bobjgalindo | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 7,143
% Adult High School Dropout: 25.0%
% Highly Educated: 11.0%
More on Milton-Freewater:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

Sweet Home, OR

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

5
/10
Population: 9,716
% Adult High School Dropout: 19.0%
% Highly Educated: 8.0%
More on Sweet Home:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

Woodburn, OR

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 25,877
% Adult High School Dropout: 32.0%
% Highly Educated: 15.0%
More on Woodburn:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

Tillamook, OR

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

6
/10
Population: 5,183
% Adult High School Dropout: 17.0%
% Highly Educated: 9.0%
More on Tillamook:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

Umatilla, OR

Source: Wikipedia User Tedder | CC BY 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 7,224
% Adult High School Dropout: 18.0%
% Highly Educated: 13.0%
More on Umatilla:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

Cornelius, OR

Source: Wikipedia User M.O. Stevens | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 12,893
% Adult High School Dropout: 24.0%
% Highly Educated: 16.0%
More on Cornelius:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

Ontario, OR

Source: Flickr User Dougtone | CC BY-SA 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10
Population: 11,465
% Adult High School Dropout: 21.0%
% Highly Educated: 16.0%
More on Ontario:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

Hermiston, OR

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

6
/10
Population: 19,141
% Adult High School Dropout: 30.0%
% Highly Educated: 17.0%
More on Hermiston:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

Winston, OR

Source: Wikipedia User Visitor7 | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

8
/10
Population: 5,591
% Adult High School Dropout: 14.0%
% Highly Educated: 13.0%
More on Winston:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

Veneta, OR

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 5,199
% Adult High School Dropout: 16.0%
% Highly Educated: 16.0%
More on Veneta:  Cost Of Living

Methodology: How we determined the dumbest cities in the Beaver 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 narrowed 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 Oregon:

  • % 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 2017-2021 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 Oregon from dumbest to brightest.

For this ranking, we used every Oregon city with at least 5,000 residents. We updated this article for 2023, and it’s our tenth time ranking the dumbest cities in Oregon.

There You Have It – Now That You’re Asleep

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

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

  1. Lake Oswego
  2. West Linn
  3. Corvallis

For more Oregon reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Dumbest Cities In Oregon For 2023

Rank City Population
1 Milton-Freewater, OR 7,143
2 Sweet Home, OR 9,716
3 Woodburn, OR 25,877
4 Tillamook, OR 5,183
5 Umatilla, OR 7,224
6 Cornelius, OR 12,893
7 Ontario, OR 11,465
8 Hermiston, OR 19,141
9 Winston, OR 5,591
10 Veneta, OR 5,199
11 Madras, OR 7,381
12 St. Helens, OR 13,808
13 Independence, OR 9,850
14 Prineville, OR 10,611
15 Fairview, OR 10,439
16 Lebanon, OR 18,150
17 Stayton, OR 8,199
18 The Dalles, OR 15,942
19 Gresham, OR 114,164
20 Eagle Point, OR 9,600
21 Warrenton, OR 6,123
22 Sutherlin, OR 8,429
23 Klamath Falls, OR 21,710
24 Coos Bay, OR 15,921
25 Pendleton, OR 16,861
26 Florence, OR 9,353
27 Molalla, OR 10,060
28 Springfield, OR 62,138
29 Redmond, OR 33,160
30 Grants Pass, OR 38,902
31 Salem, OR 174,193
32 Monmouth, OR 10,735
33 Mcminnville, OR 34,224
34 Keizer, OR 39,119
35 Cottage Grove, OR 10,569
36 Canby, OR 18,078
37 Hood River, OR 8,210
38 Central Point, OR 18,948
39 Scappoose, OR 7,871
40 Troutdale, OR 16,353
41 Forest Grove, OR 25,767
42 North Bend, OR 10,224
43 Sandy, OR 12,383
44 Newberg, OR 25,108
45 Medford, OR 84,894
46 Dallas, OR 16,663
47 Seaside, OR 7,058
48 Roseburg, OR 23,551
49 Gladstone, OR 12,017
50 Astoria, OR 10,166
51 Creswell, OR 5,625
52 Albany, OR 55,776
53 La Grande, OR 13,212
54 Hillsboro, OR 105,909
55 Brookings, OR 6,706
56 Talent, OR 6,256
57 Newport, OR 10,305
58 Portland, OR 647,176
59 Milwaukie, OR 21,108
60 Silverton, OR 10,402
61 Tualatin, OR 27,821
62 Philomath, OR 5,353
63 Beaverton, OR 97,466
64 Eugene, OR 173,278
65 Wilsonville, OR 25,887
66 Tigard, OR 54,750
67 Happy Valley, OR 23,442
68 Bend, OR 97,042
69 Sherwood, OR 20,281
70 Ashland, OR 21,348
71 Corvallis, OR 59,407
72 West Linn, OR 27,173
73 Lake Oswego, OR 40,390
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.

3 thoughts on “The 10 Dumbest Places In Oregon For 2023

  1. As a native American from warm springs rezervation next to madras I know a lot of people drop out of school who start…probably what brought % down

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