Is Iowa One Of The Smartest States In The U.S.?

For many people a good education powers their future success; it can lead to a high-paying job, more social connections and greater growth opportunities down the road. But some states are better at providing those opportunities than others. Which begs the question: Just how smart is the Hawkeye state?

Consumer website WalletHub.com analyzed education data from all 50 states--school quality, attainment, gender/racial gaps, etc. The findings revealed that states with higher median incomes tended to have better educations.

Iowa ranks almost exactly in the middle, 26th out of 50, but does have one of the highest high school graduation rates in the country. Most of the Midwest is close to the middle--the outliers being Minnesota (8th overall), and Indiana (38th).

As for the least-educated, it's probably no shock that Southern states make up most of this part of the graph--the lone exceptions are Nevada, which ranked 45th, and West Virginia, which came in last at #50.