Category: mapping

Nelson Mandela said that education is the most powerful weapon to change the world. But not every city worldwide, or even in a country like the U.S., has the same education levels. In fact, some cities in America see 53.8% of residents completing graduate school while other U.S. cities just 0.9%. That’s a big gap.

So when it comes to the most educated cities in the US, the map below teaches us those with the highest percentage of graduate or professional degrees, cities where most people stop after their Bachelor’s, Associate’s, some college or high school, along with several more levels of education.

View Most Educated Cities in the US in a full screen map

The map’s educational attainment data comes from the recent U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey. It describes the education level of those over the age of 25 in 630 cities, ranging from high school, Associate’s degrees, Bachelor’s, and beyond to conclude the US cities with the highest education rates. So let’s get learning which those are, including the #1 most educated city in the US (a hint: it’s in California).

Most Educated Cities in the US: Grad School Edition

There are many levels of education: 9th-grade completion, high school graduation, and Bachelor of Arts. But the most educated cities in the US are those with the highest percentage of grad school graduates. The 10 cities below report between 37.6% to 53.8% of their population received graduate degrees:

• Palo Alto, California – 53.8%
• Newton, Massachusetts – 51.2%
• Cambridge, Massachusetts – 50.3%
• Ann Arbor, Michigan – 46.3%
• Evanston, Illinois – 41.6%
• Berkeley, California – 41.3%
• Boulder, Colorado – 40.6%
• Arlington, Virginia – 40.1%
• Mountain View, California – 39.7%
• Carmel, Indiana – 37.6%

Whether California is home to ample universities with professional programs or there’s just something in the water, there’s no doubt the Golden State gets an “A” in education. The most educated city in the US, Palo Alto, is located here, along with Berkeley (#6) and Mountain View (#9). Of course, many of these cities are near large and famous universities, including Stanford in Palo Alto and Berkeley, in, well… Berkeley. Additionally, Google is based in Mountain View and hires many PhDs. While the American average for graduate degrees is 13.8%, a total of 48 California cities fall above that, making CA one of the most educated states ranking.

On the opposite side of the country, Massachusetts’ top intelligent towns include Newton along with Cambridge, which is home to Harvard and MIT.

That leaves just half of the top 10 to be discussed, three of which are located in Midwestern states like Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. Of course, many folks stop at a Bachelor’s degree, so let’s highlight them.

American Cities Without Graduate Degrees

As we previously mentioned, an average of 13.8% of people in American cities have graduate degrees. The following cities are well beneath that percentage, making them some of the least educated in the nation.

• Lynwood, California – 0.9%
• Camden, New Jersey – 1.3%
• South Gate, California – 1.4%
• Florence-Graham, California – 1.6%
• Tulare, California – 1.6%
• Cicero, Illinois – 1.8%
• Paterson, New Jersey – 1.8%
• East Los Angeles, California – 1.9%
• El Monte, California – 2%
• Pharr, Texas – 2.1%

While California the state was home to a few of the best educated locations, more than half of the cities above are located in California. The difference is that these are smaller, less-populated areas with historically low-income residents.

Five of the six rural Californian cities are located within 20 miles of one another, the same distance of previously-mentioned Illinois’s topmost educated city (Evanston) from lesser-so Cicero.

And of course, it has to be said that the Texan city of Pharr also happens to be far from a high rate of professional degree recipients. Regionally, only the Southeast is not represented by the least-educated cities above. However, it should be noted that several of these lesser cities have higher-than-average rates of other education levels.

Bachelor’s Degree Hubs

Finally, when it comes to being one degree removed from graduate education, the U.S. average is 21.87%. But where there’s an average, there are those that excel.

As was the case with graduate degrees, California is home to two of the country’s cities with a high percentage of Bachelor’s degrees: Redondo Beach (43.2%) and San Ramon (40.1%). Then there are three Georgian cities: Alpharetta (42.4%), Johns Creek (39.6%), and Sandy Springs (39.5%) with higher-than-average rates.

And ultimately, the following cities are just as notable:

• Highlands Ranch, Colorado – 41.4%
• Fishers, Indiana – 41.1%
• Sammamish, Washington – 40.9%
• Flower Mound, Texas – 40.3%
• Mount Pleasant, South Carolina – 39.9%

For more maps on education, be sure to check out Does Education Influence Incarceration? and Map of Top Colleges in the US. Or get started with BatchGeo today.

Amid soaring home prices and increasing cars, gas, and food costs, it’s easy to forget about other million-dollar markets, like housing defendants awaiting a trial along with those who are found guilty of a crime. While we’re not footing the bill directly, prison costs U.S. taxpayers $80 billion a year.

Yet, all expenses considered, 266 countries have prisons that house over 10 million inmates in total. So, of the populations of prisons around the world, let’s take a look at the 10 countries with the most inmates and the highest prison populations per 100,000 people. We’ll also learn the percentage of incarcerated males and females, all of which you can also find on the map below.

View World’s prison population in a full screen map

10 Countries with the Most Inmates

Let’s first take a look at the total prison population count. Of the 226 countries on the map, ten are home to over 200,000 prisoners. Some even have an incarceration count near the multi-millions.

1. United States – 2,094,000 total prison population
2. China – 1,710,000
3. Brazil – 759,518
4. India – 478,600
5. Russia – 469,283
6. Thailand – 311,605
7. Turkey – 281,094
8. Indonesia – 256,051
9. Mexico – 215,232
10. Philippines – 215,000

The countries above hold the highest population of prisoners, with the most incarcerated in the U.S. America is the only country in the world to total over two million inmates. Many are housed in two of the largest jails: California’s Los Angeles County (inmate population of 19,836) and Rikers Island in New York (13,849 inmates). Along with the U.S., Brazil and Mexico are also home to high prison populations in the Americas.

But while the U.S. is the country with the most incarcerated individuals, Asia as a continent is where multiple countries with highly-populated prisons are located. The map shows pins clustered in Asia, representing the large prison populations of China, India, Thailand, Turkey, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

However, many of these countries with large prison populations are also the most generally populated in the world. So let’s see if the list changes when we take population into account.

Highest Prisoner Rate per 100,000 People

How does a country’s general population affect its incarceration rate—and its rank among the world’s countries with the most inmates? We’ll find out when we take a look at each country’s prison population per 100,000 people on the table below.

Country or subnational area	Rate per 100,000
United States	639
El Salvador	572
Turkmenistan	552
Palau	522
Rwanda	511
Cuba	510
Maldives	499
Thailand	449
British Virgin Islands	447
Bahamas	442

Once again, the U.S. tops the charts, even when population is considered. For every 100,000 people, 639 are incarcerated in the country. While this doesn’t 100% answer the question of what country has the worst prisons, the U.S. definitely has the most people in prison.

Thailand is the only country with a large count and a high rate of prisoners. No other country with a prisoner count falls on this list. But India (#4 in prisoner count) does make another list: lowest prisoner rate. While India houses 478,600 inmates, its rate of incarceration is the 15th lowest in the world (35 per 100,000 people).

Also in Asia: Turkmenistan, Maldives, and Thailand have the highest prisoner rates, joined by countries in the Americas: El Salvador, Cuba, British Virgin Islands, and the Bahamas. We can now move on to our final deep dive into the data on the map: the percentage of males versus females in prison.

Percentage of Incarcerated Males & Females

That just leaves the percentage of male and female inmates, national and foreign percentage, along with occupancy and remand. We’ll address the percentage of male and female inmates now, and you discover more about the other categories by browsing the map.

Countries with All-Male Inmates

Did you know that seven countries have entirely all-male prison populations?

• Anguilla
• Faroe Islands
• Liechtenstein
• Marshall Islands
• Micronesia
• San Marino
• Tuvalu

Within these countries’ prisons, 100% are male inmates and 0% are female. The rest of the world’s male prison populations range from 99.7% (Mayotte) to 79.9% (Hong Kong). So let’s move on to female prison populations.

Highest Female Prison Populations

In contrast to male prison populations, female inmates are less common. The following countries have the highest percentage of female prisoners in the world:

• Hong Kong (20.1% female prisoners)
• Qatar (14.7%)
• Monaco (14.3%)
• Greenland (13.8%)
• Laos (13.7%)
• Myanmar (12.3%)
• Macau (12.2%)
• Thailand (12.2%)

And that’s a wrap on our map of the populations of prisons around the world. You’ll also want to check out Does Education Influence Incarceration? or Famous Filming Locations Pinned, containing infamous prisons in film.

You can find snakes on almost every continent in the world. As a result, human beings are bound to cross paths with a snake or two. Most of the time, nothing comes from these interactions. Yet occasionally, you might stumble across a venomous snake at the wrong time. The resulting bites can be deadly.

There have been 107 such bites in the U.S., most occurring in July as cold-blooded reptiles become more active in the warmer weather. Decreasing the odds of survival is the cost of treatment. Anti-venom costs around $2,500 per vial. One victim received eight vials of antivenom, yet still died. Even if you survive your first bite, your chances of doing so a second time decrease dramatically.

Of these deadly snake bites, one species has been the source of more bites than any other, including many of the youngest victims, which you can explore on the map below.

View Fatal Snake Bites in the U.S. in a full screen map

Deadliest Snake: Fatal Rattlesnake Bites

Of the 107 fatal U.S. snake bites on the map, Rattlesnake bites account for nearly 80% of deaths, with Copperheads and Cobras as the next most. Let’s slither into the subspecies statistics of these deadly Rattlesnake bites:

• Rattlesnake (no subspecies noted) – 53 fatal bites
• Timber Rattlesnake – 16
• Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake – 7
• Western Diamondback Rattlesnake – 3
• Southern Pacific Rattlesnake – 2
• Prairie Rattlesnake – 2
• Mojave Rattlesnake – 2

Unspecified Rattlesnake bites aside, the subspecies with the most death toll is the Timber Rattlesnake. Sixteen people in the U.S. have been bitten and subsequently died from these bites. Most took place in either Georgia (4) or West Virginia (3), seeing as Timber Rattlesnakes mostly reside in the Eastern U.S.

Several Timber Rattlesnake victims were bitten during church service, during “snake handling,” when snakes are voluntarily passed around among the congregants. Though laws exist to prevent this religious rite, one man was bitten as recently as 2015 during a religious service at a Pentecostal Church in Jenson, Kentucky. He refused treatment and died in his brother’s home. Three others also died under similar circumstances, all at the hands—or fangs—of the Timber Rattlesnake.

Additionally, there are seven deathly Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake bites, along with Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (3), Southern Pacific, Prairie, and Mojave Rattlesnake (2 each). For more on the other common though not as prevalent snake bites, check out the map. Otherwise, we’re moving on to the youngest victims, of which all but one were bitten by Rattlesnakes.

Youngest (& Oldest!) Victims to Venom

Snakes don’t have eyelids, so they needn’t blink. Even with this never-ending gaze, they can’t discern a victim’s age. Those bitten and killed by snakes in the U.S. range from just a year old to 80. Let’s take a closer look at the youngest victims on the table below.

Name	Age	Gender	Subspecies	State	Year	Additional information
Donald Bebis	1	male	Rattlesnake	MT	1965	15-month-old Don Bebis was playing in the yard at his home in Cat Creek, Montana, when he was bitten on both legs on August 4, 1965.
Karen Perry	1	female	Rattlesnake	CA	1953	15-month-old Perry was playing in the backyard of her home in Tujunga, California, when she was bitten on the hand by a “pencil thin,” 18-inch long rattlesnake.
Peyton Hood	1	female	Western Diamondback Rattlesnake	TX	2010	Accidentally stepped on baby Western Diamondback while climbing down ladder at Possum Kingdom Lake, Texas. The snake struck her main artery. She was rushed to the hospital, but died within a few hours.
Derek Lema	2	male	Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake	FL	2000	Lema was bitten in the thigh by a rattlesnake while helping his father, Victor Lema, in their Lakewood Ranch, Florida, backyard.
Frank Benham	2	male	Prairie Rattlesnake	CO	1903	Benham died from a rattlesnake bite in Adams County, Colorado, 17 miles north of Deer Trail.
James Ananias Brannon	2	male	Rattlesnake	TX	1882	Brannon died from a rattlesnake bite received while lying on a blanket in Texas.
John Charles Goss	2	male	Rattlesnake	PA	1941	Bitten beneath the right knee while at a picnic near the city reservoir alongside the Willow Creek Highway in Bradford, Pennsylvania.
Reba Ann Cooper	2	female	Rattlesnake	TX	1940	The daughter of a rancher, Cooper was bitten by a rattlesnake on a ranch near Rocksprings, Texas.
Gregory Lee Hall	3	male	Copperhead	AL	1976	Bitten on the right hand by a copperhead he picked while playing near his home in Jacksonville, Alabama, on May 31, 1976.
Brayden Bullard	4	male	Timber Rattlesnake	FL	2014	Bitten while planting watermelons in his backyard in Bryceville, Florida. He was rushed to the hospital, but died 2 weeks later.
Helen Moomey	4	female	Rattlesnake	ND	1915	Moomey died from a rattlesnake bite she received while playing with friends near her house in Billings County, North Dakota.  The prairie rattlesnake is the only venomous snake in North Dakota.

Of the young victims, all but one were bit by Rattlesnakes. Three-year-old Gregory Lee Hall passed away from a Copperhead snake bite in Alabama. However, most of these tragic occurrences took place in Texas and Florida. Three children died from a Rattlesnake bite in the Lone Star State, while three passed away from snakes in Florida.

As for the oldest victim, an 80-year-old man was killed in Armuchee, Georgia, when he ironically tried to avoid killing a Timber Rattlesnake he found in his garage. As he tried to move the snake with a broom, he fell on top of it. The resulting bite killed him after 30 hours and eight antivenom vials.

You can see the other oldest victims on the map when you group by “Age” and opt for the 80 – 64 range. Speaking of Texas, Florida, and Georgia, let’s move on to location—not just of the youngest or oldest victims—but every snake bite fatality on the map.

Florida, Texas, & Where Snakes Bite

Luckily for some (and not so much for others), venomous snakes aren’t found everywhere in the U.S. The majority of fatal snake bites occur in Texas, West Virginia, along with other southern states. However, Floridians deal with the most deadly bites. In total, 13 have been killed by snakes in the Sunshine State, including 11 Rattlesnakes, one coral snake, and one unknown.

Never too far behind Florida is, of course, Texas with 10 Rattlesnake bites and one cobra bite that ended in death. Joining Florida in the Southeast are West Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, and Alabama with seven fatal bites each. These states all have warm weather in common, which is when snakes become more active.

Similar insights often become apparent when you map your data—and especially when you enable Heat View, a feature BatchGeo Pro users have in common with some snakes.

Of course, snakes aren’t the only animal that can take down a human. We’ve mapped Every US Shark Attack Fatality Since 1900 for along with Bear Attack Statistics of North America.

Or make a Heat View map of your own at batchgeo.com.