The 10 Dumbest Places In New York For 2026

The unfortunate fact of the matter is that some places in the Empire State have a larger percent of their population that never graduated from high school.

While the emphasis on going to college might be overblown, the fact is that not graduating from high school puts you at a significant disadvantage on average. Educational attainment might not be the best way to measure one person’s intelligence, but it does shine a light on the state.

We will use Saturday Night Science to determine what places in New York have the highest percentage of adults without a high school degree.

A recent study we published found that New York is the 36th smartest state in the United States, with an average IQ of 98.

But that doesn’t mean that a few cities in New York are a bit slower than others due to a lack of basic education.

Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table

Don’t freak out.

Some places are just smarter than others, but that says nothing about the character of the people living there. It’s another data point a real estate agent would never tell you.

For this ranking, we only looked at cities with populations greater than 5,000, leaving us 162 cities in New York to rank. You can take a look at the data below.

For more New York reading, check out:

• Best Places To Live In New York
• Safest Places To Live In New York

Methodology: How we determined the dumbest cities in the Empire State

We realize that formal education is only part of it when it comes to being intelligent, but on the other hand, knowing the difference between they’re, their, and there is always going to make you look pretty stupid.

So, we used Saturday Night Science to narrow down our criteria to focus on a city’s educational opportunities and what percentage of the population takes advantage of those opportunities.

In short, we came up with these criteria to determine the dumbest cities in New York:

• % of the city’s population with less than a high school education (Age 25+)
• % of city’s population with a college degree (Age 25+)

We got the data from the U.S. Census 2020-2024 American Community Survey.

Then, our algorithm generates a rank for each place in these categories. After crunching all the numbers, a ranking of the cities in New York from dumbest to brightest.

For this ranking, we used every New York city with at least 5,000 residents. We updated this article for 2026, and it’s our eleventh time ranking the dumbest cities in New York.

There You Have It – Now That You’re Asleep

If you’re measuring the locations in New York where there are a high number of dropouts and adults who never received a formal education, this is an accurate ranking.

The dumbest cities in New York are New Square, Kiryas Joel, Monticello, Kaser, Spring Valley, Liberty, Fulton, Newburgh, Albion, and Elmira.

If you’re also curious enough, here are the smartest places in New York, according to science:

1. Scarsdale
2. Larchmont
3. North Hills

For more New York reading, check out:

• Best Places To Live In New York
• Cheapest Places To Live In New York
• Most Dangerous Places In New York
• Richest Cities In New York
• Safest Places In New York According To Science
• Worst Places To Live In New York State
• Most Expensive Places To Live In New York

Dumbest Cities In New York For 2026