Just shy of 34% of Baton Rouge’s millennial population holds a college degree, ranking the metro area No. 57 out of the United States’ largest 100 metro areas, according to a new Brookings Institute analysis.
The analysis trails Amazon’s announcement of the 20 metro areas that are finalists for the tech giant’s second headquarters, a $5 billion project that promises to generate some 50,000 jobs. While Baton Rouge and Louisiana officials made a bid for the project, no locations in the state made the list of 20 finalists.
The analysis shows Baton Rouge’s millennial population has a slightly smaller share of degree holders—33.7%—than does New Orleans, which ranks No. 50 with 34.3% of millennials holding degrees.
About half of the metro areas in the top 10 of the Brookings analysis are Amazon HQ2 finalists, with the Boston area leading the way at 58.5%.
States with the largest populations of millennials with college degrees are primarily located in the Northeast and on the Eastern seaboard, led by Massachusetts with 51%. States in the Deep South, Southwest, and Appalachia are at the bottom of the list. Louisiana is ranked No. 40 among all states, with 27%, while Texas is No. 34 with 29.5% and Mississippi is dead last with 22.7%.
