The 10 Dumbest Places In Virginia For 2023

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

A recent study we published found that Virginia is actually the 9th smartest state in the United States, with an average IQ of 101.

But that doesn’t mean that a few cities in Virginia 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 Old Dominion.

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 63 cities in Virginia to rank. You can take a look at the data below.

For more Virginia reading, check out:

• Best Places To Live In Virginia
• Cheapest Places To Live In Virginia
• Safest Places To Live In Virginia

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

Methodology: How we determined the dumbest cities in the Old Dominion

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 Virginia:

• % 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 Virginia from dumbest to brightest.

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

There You Have It – Now That You’re Asleep

If you’re measuring the locations in Virginia 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 Virginia, according to science:

1. Falls Church
2. Blacksburg
3. Lexington

For more Virginia reading, check out:

• Best Places To Live In Virginia
• Cheapest Places To Live In Virginia
• Most Dangerous Cities In Virginia
• Richest Cities In Virginia
• Safest Places In Virginia
• Worst Cities In Virginia For 2017
• Most Expensive Places To Live In Virginia

Detailed List Of The Dumbest Cities In Virginia For 2023