Columbia makes list of smartest cities in America

A new list from Lumosityranks the top 100 smartest cities in America, and two Mid-Missouri towns made the cut.

Columbia, the home of the University of Missouri, ranked 41st on the list, while Lawrence, Kan. — the home of the University of Kansas, Mizzou rival — ranked ninth.

San Francisco-based Lumosity creates brain-training exercises and collected data from more than 3 million people in the U.S. who played those online brain games. Most of the cities that placed in the top 100 are considered college towns.

Rolla, home of the Missouri University of Science & Technology, ranked 19th on the list. St. Louis did not make the list, but Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan., both placed 85th.

“One of the most interesting findings from this analysis is that most of the top metro areas contain major research universities, suggesting that education is an important predictor of cognitive performance,” said Lumosity data scientist Daniel Sternberg.

The top ten cities are:

1. Ithaca, N.Y.
2. State College, Pa.
3. Lafayette-West Lafayette, Ind.
4. Iowa City, Iowa
5. Ames, Iowa
6. Ann Arbor, Mich.
7. Bloomington, Ind.
8. Madison, Wis.
9. Lawrence, Kan.
10. Pullman, Wash.

You can see the full list here.