County rankings · computed from the data, updated daily

The counties where students test highest

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Williamson County, Tennessee has the highest math test scores of the 823 US counties with 50,000 or more people: 3.82 on a scale where 3.0 is grade level (SEDA via County Health Rankings 2024).

These are grade-level equivalents, not rankings: 3.0 means students perform at grade level, 3.5 means half a grade ahead. The score is the average of math and reading from the Stanford Education Data Archive, as published by County Health Rankings 2024.

Home value sits alongside because the correlation is the whole story of American schooling, and the exceptions on this list are worth a look.

The counties where students test highest: top ten, chart
Top ten by the first column. Free to share; the credit line is on the image.Download PNG

25 of 823 qualifying counties shown. Click a county for its page.

#CountyMath grade levelReading grade levelMedian homeMedian incomePeople
1Williamson, TN3.823.81$922K$126K249K
2Hamilton, IN3.813.61$468K$115K350K
3Hendricks, IN3.793.70$345K$95K176K
4St. Johns, FL3.753.70$493K$100K279K
5Forsyth, GA3.733.69$619K$132K253K
6Delaware, OH3.693.76$521K$124K216K
7Boone, IN3.683.53$422K$103K71K
8Wayne, PA3.673.27$307K$59K51K
9Bristol, RI3.663.79$654K$106K51K
10Geauga, OH3.643.74$383K$97K95K
11Wright, MN3.643.41$397K$103K143K
12Nassau, FL3.633.57$482K$84K92K
13Hancock, IN3.633.40$331K$85K80K
14Porter, IN3.623.51$333K$83K173K
15Warrick, IN3.603.52$293K$91K64K
16Waukesha, WI3.583.40$507K$102K407K
17Norfolk, MA3.583.67$783K$121K722K
18Ozaukee, WI3.583.57$508K$92K92K
19Dallas, IA3.573.44$356K$100K100K
20Scott, MN3.573.27$448K$118K151K
21Bergen, NJ3.573.68$786K$119K953K
22Monroe, IN3.563.40$316K$60K140K
23Morris, NJ3.563.61$713K$131K509K
24Collin, TX3.553.29$489K$113K1,079K
25Washington, WI3.553.40$431K$92K137K

Sources: SEDA via County Health Rankings 2024 (3.0 = at grade level; not a Z-score) · Zillow ZHVI 2024 · Census ACS 2022. Population: Census 2023 estimates. Recomputed from the county database every day.

What the list shows

The 25 counties come from 13 states. Indiana appears most often, with 7 of the 25. Williamson, TN leads at 3.82; number 25, Washington, WI, sits at 3.55, a gap of 0.27 from top to bottom of the table.

Across all 823 counties over the 50,000-person floor, the median value of the ranking column (Math Test Scores) is 3.02. Every county on this list is above that middle.

On housing, of the 25 with a Zillow figure, 0 have a median home under $200K and 9 are at $500K or more. The cheapest is Warrick, IN at $293K; the most expensive is Williamson, TN at $922K.

How we rank

Every county with 50,000 or more residents in the Census 2023 estimate is eligible. Counties are ranked by Math Test Scores, highest first, from SEDA via County Health Rankings 2024 (3.0 = at grade level; not a Z-score). A county missing any figure in the table is left out rather than scored as zero, which is why 823 of the 3,222 places in the county database qualify. Connecticut’s planning regions are excluded because they are not counties. The table is recomputed from the database every day, so figures here can move as sources update.

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