The 10 Dumbest Places In Indiana For 2024


The dumbest places in Indiana are Westville and Lake Station for 2024 based on Saturday Night Science.

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

A recent study we published found that Indiana is the 19th smartest state in the United States, with an average IQ of 100.

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


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


Dumbest Cities In Indiana 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 116 cities in Indiana to rank. You can take a look at the data below.

For more Indiana reading, check out:

The 10 Dumbest Places In Indiana For 2024

Westville, IN

Source: Wikipedia User Chris Light at en.wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

7
/10
Population: 5,885
% Adult High School Dropout: 24.0%
% Highly Educated: 5.0%
More on Westville: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Lake Station, IN

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10
Population: 13,352
% Adult High School Dropout: 23.0%
% Highly Educated: 8.0%
More on Lake Station: Data | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

East Chicago, IN

Source: Wikipedia User Dennisyerger84 | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10
Population: 26,363
% Adult High School Dropout: 26.0%
% Highly Educated: 10.0%
More on East Chicago: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

4
/10
Population: 7,313
% Adult High School Dropout: 20.0%
% Highly Educated: 11.0%
More on Scottsburg: Data | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Logansport, IN

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10
Population: 18,166
% Adult High School Dropout: 20.0%
% Highly Educated: 11.0%
More on Logansport: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Huntingburg, IN

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 6,480
% Adult High School Dropout: 23.0%
% Highly Educated: 12.0%
More on Huntingburg: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Frankfort, IN

Source: Wikipedia User Paul J Everett | CC BY 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10
Population: 15,976
% Adult High School Dropout: 20.0%
% Highly Educated: 12.0%
More on Frankfort: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Kendallville, IN

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 10,176
% Adult High School Dropout: 18.0%
% Highly Educated: 11.0%
More on Kendallville: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Connersville, IN

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

4
/10
Population: 13,395
% Adult High School Dropout: 20.0%
% Highly Educated: 14.0%
More on Connersville: Data | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Nappanee, IN

Source: Wikipedia User | CC BY 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 7,276
% Adult High School Dropout: 17.0%
% Highly Educated: 12.0%
More on Nappanee: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Methodology: How we determined the dumbest cities in the Hoosier 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 Indiana:

  • % 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 Indiana from dumbest to brightest.

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

There You Have It – Now That You’re Asleep

If you’re measuring the locations in Indiana 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 Indiana are Westville, Lake Station, East Chicago, Scottsburg, Logansport, Huntingburg, Frankfort, Kendallville, Connersville, and Nappanee.

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

  1. West Lafayette
  2. Carmel
  3. Zionsville

For more Indiana reading, check out:

Dumbest Cities In Indiana For 2024

Rank City Population % Adult High School Dropout % Highly Educated
1 Westville, IN 5,885 24.0% 5.0%
2 Lake Station, IN 13,352 23.0% 8.0%
3 East Chicago, IN 26,363 26.0% 10.0%
4 Scottsburg, IN 7,313 20.0% 11.0%
5 Logansport, IN 18,166 20.0% 11.0%
6 Huntingburg, IN 6,480 23.0% 12.0%
7 Frankfort, IN 15,976 20.0% 12.0%
8 Kendallville, IN 10,176 18.0% 11.0%
9 Connersville, IN 13,395 20.0% 14.0%
10 Nappanee, IN 7,276 17.0% 12.0%
11 Brazil, IN 8,114 14.0% 9.0%
12 Martinsville, IN 11,916 16.0% 13.0%
13 Princeton, IN 8,344 14.0% 11.0%
14 Portland, IN 6,432 15.0% 13.0%
15 Washington, IN 12,076 17.0% 15.0%
16 Vincennes, IN 16,715 17.0% 15.0%
17 Marion, IN 27,528 16.0% 15.0%
18 Hammond, IN 77,390 16.0% 15.0%
19 Elkhart, IN 53,785 19.0% 17.0%
20 Salem, IN 6,330 15.0% 15.0%
21 Plymouth, IN 10,369 20.0% 18.0%
22 Rushville, IN 6,412 14.0% 14.0%
23 Peru, IN 10,862 14.0% 14.0%
24 Crawfordsville, IN 16,335 16.0% 16.0%
25 North Vernon, IN 6,935 11.0% 9.0%
26 Linton, IN 5,149 17.0% 18.0%
27 Garrett, IN 6,434 13.0% 15.0%
28 Gary, IN 69,136 13.0% 15.0%
29 Richmond, IN 35,642 15.0% 18.0%
30 Portage, IN 37,737 11.0% 14.0%
31 New Castle, IN 17,413 11.0% 14.0%
32 Alexandria, IN 5,144 10.0% 12.0%
33 Seymour, IN 21,373 14.0% 19.0%
34 Anderson, IN 55,011 12.0% 16.0%
35 Elwood, IN 8,339 9.0% 8.0%
36 Clarksville, IN 22,087 15.0% 22.0%
37 La Porte, IN 22,409 13.0% 19.0%
38 Shelbyville, IN 19,678 12.0% 18.0%
39 Kokomo, IN 59,534 11.0% 16.0%
40 Fortville, IN 5,206 13.0% 21.0%
41 Bedford, IN 13,802 11.0% 16.0%
42 Madison, IN 12,301 13.0% 22.0%
43 Beech Grove, IN 15,181 13.0% 22.0%
44 Bluffton, IN 10,461 10.0% 15.0%
45 Huntington, IN 17,017 11.0% 17.0%
46 Goshen, IN 34,704 16.0% 25.0%
47 Rensselaer, IN 5,330 11.0% 19.0%
48 Lebanon, IN 17,277 12.0% 23.0%
49 Decatur, IN 9,718 6.0% 12.0%
50 Terre Haute, IN 58,599 11.0% 23.0%
51 Greensburg, IN 11,431 10.0% 19.0%
52 South Bend, IN 103,084 14.0% 28.0%
53 Evansville, IN 116,906 11.0% 22.0%
54 Tipton, IN 5,255 11.0% 23.0%
55 Boonville, IN 6,670 11.0% 23.0%
56 Monticello, IN 5,488 5.0% 13.0%
57 Lawrenceburg, IN 5,140 11.0% 24.0%
58 Charlestown, IN 7,986 10.0% 22.0%
59 Indianapolis, IN 882,006 14.0% 32.0%
60 Mount Vernon, IN 6,480 9.0% 20.0%
61 New Haven, IN 15,552 11.0% 24.0%
62 Mooresville, IN 9,525 9.0% 22.0%
63 Rochester, IN 6,236 9.0% 22.0%
64 Warsaw, IN 16,473 13.0% 33.0%
65 Franklin, IN 26,073 7.0% 21.0%
66 New Albany, IN 37,598 10.0% 24.0%
67 Wabash, IN 10,417 9.0% 23.0%
68 Greenfield, IN 23,669 9.0% 23.0%
69 Lafayette, IN 70,828 11.0% 28.0%
70 Greencastle, IN 9,865 10.0% 25.0%
71 Auburn, IN 13,316 6.0% 20.0%
72 Fort Wayne, IN 264,514 11.0% 28.0%
73 Lawrence, IN 49,218 11.0% 33.0%
74 Mishawaka, IN 50,899 10.0% 26.0%
75 Muncie, IN 65,167 10.0% 26.0%
76 Lowell, IN 10,723 4.0% 18.0%
77 Sellersburg, IN 9,948 10.0% 29.0%
78 Merrillville, IN 36,214 8.0% 25.0%
79 Hobart, IN 29,573 6.0% 23.0%
80 Jeffersonville, IN 49,771 7.0% 24.0%
81 New Whiteland, IN 5,591 9.0% 26.0%
82 Speedway, IN 13,646 11.0% 33.0%
83 North Manchester, IN 5,017 8.0% 27.0%
84 Plainfield, IN 35,078 10.0% 31.0%
85 Cedar Lake, IN 14,215 5.0% 23.0%
86 Jasper, IN 16,488 7.0% 27.0%
87 Angola, IN 9,317 9.0% 29.0%
88 Greenwood, IN 63,579 8.0% 32.0%
89 Batesville, IN 7,052 6.0% 28.0%
90 Crown Point, IN 33,735 7.0% 33.0%
91 Griffith, IN 16,182 4.0% 26.0%
92 Danville, IN 10,842 5.0% 31.0%
93 Cicero, IN 5,356 5.0% 32.0%
94 Avon, IN 21,783 7.0% 44.0%
95 Columbus, IN 50,896 7.0% 42.0%
96 Valparaiso, IN 33,991 6.0% 42.0%
97 Porter, IN 5,204 3.0% 28.0%
98 Schererville, IN 29,573 5.0% 35.0%
99 Cumberland, IN 5,991 3.0% 30.0%
100 Winfield, IN 7,219 5.0% 35.0%
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.

12 thoughts on “The 10 Dumbest Places In Indiana For 2024

  1. Bullshit! Brazil is NOT that stupid! Terre haute is by far and away the single most stupid ass city in Indiana. You all need to re-evaluate your methodology

  2. The population of Westville is only 5200 when you include the prison population. It’s a fact….check it out.

  3. I do not understand the need of the media to post negative things about a person’s hometown or state. Why couldn’t they post something like the 10 smartest cities?

  4. Don’t know where you get your statistics but you better check them a little closer. There hasn’t been a Brazil high school for many many many years. LOL

  5. I think the criteria violates the premise. When cities like Terre Haute use federal grant money to create what amount to virtual holding pens for students who would otherwise drop out of high school and keep them around long enough to hand them an anything-but-earned diploma, the data is highly misleading.

  6. Brazil …sin city… Bag chasers , incest, prison hoppen ,meth dealers , so called job hoppers lmao ik I live there …… Keep stuff chained up on the porch .

  7. Welcome to Indiana. What might as well be called the white trash capital of the Midwest because of the white trash behavior of so many of its citizens. Add in generations of familial incest, high alcohol usage, heavy drug usage, and a total lack of education. Not to mention a lack of dedication towards getting an education within generations of families which is a large part of the problem in Indiana and why the state is going backwards. Add in the fact that about 30% of the population if not more is severely overweight and has white trash tendencies as well. When you look at the lack of education, overweight people, drug and alcohol abuse and lack of self-respect it explains why Indiana is a white trash haven

  8. Westville has a population of about a little over 1,000 people… Most of the actual population is of prisoners in the Westville Correctional Facility. Westville’s one school has about enough room for 500 students k-12th grade. Most move, most come and go, and in reality half dont even live in Westville. Half of the students in the school come from LaPorte, Michigan City, Kingsford Heights, and etc. Plenty of kids have the capability to do better than the effort they put out. They honestly just don’t care. That’s why the scores are low. I’ve watched a boy get all F’s until someone actually got in his head. Then, when he actually tried, he was getting A’s and B’s. Great community and most people who have gone there say it’s better than other schools they’ve been to. I’m pretty sure this won’t be seen or what not, but I voiced my opinion.

  9. The reason that westville is the dumbest city is because half of the town are inmates. The prison has a capacity of approximately 3000. The rest of westville has about 2000 residents. Please do your research before posting stuff like this. Its an insult to our town

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