The unfortunate fact of the matter is that some places in the Lone Star 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 Texas have the highest percentage of adults without a high school degree.
A recent study we published found that Texas is the 30th smartest state in the United States, with an average IQ of 100.
But that doesn’t mean that a few cities in Texas are a bit slower than others due to a lack of basic education.
#1 dumbest in Texas
Located in
Frio County, Texas
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#2 dumbest in Texas
Located in
Dallas County, Texas
Hutchins is a city in Dallas County, Texas, United States. The population was 5,338 at the 2010 census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#3 dumbest in Texas
Located in
Harris County, Texas
Galena Park is a city in Harris County, Texas, United States, within the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan area. The population was 10,887 at the 2010 census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#4 dumbest in Texas
Located in
Winkler County, Texas
Kermit is a city in and the county seat of Winkler County, Texas, United States. The population was 5,708 at the 2010 census. The city was named for Kermit Roosevelt after a visit by his father Theodore Roosevelt to the county.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#5 dumbest in Texas
Located in
Deaf Smith County, Texas
Hereford is a city in and county seat of Deaf Smith County, Texas, United States. It is forty-eight miles southwest of Amarillo. The population was 15,370 at the 2010 census. It is the only incorporated locality named “Hereford” in the country.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#6 dumbest in Texas
Located in
Gonzales County, Texas
Gonzales is a city in Gonzales County, Texas, United States. The population was 7,237 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#7 dumbest in Texas
Located in
Harris County, Texas
South Houston is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, within Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land metropolitan area and HarrisCounty. The population was 16,983 at the 2010 census. It is bordered by the cities of Houston and Pasadena.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#8 dumbest in Texas
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#9 dumbest in Texas
Located in
Waller County, Texas
Hempstead is a city in Waller County, Texas, United States, part of the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land metropolitan area. It serves as the county seat of Waller County.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#10 dumbest in Texas
Located in
Nueces County, Texas
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Texas’s statewide median.
On the map
Where Texas’s dumbest cities are
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we determined the dumbest cities in the Lone Star 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 Texas:
- % 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 Texas from dumbest to brightest.
For this ranking, we used every Texas city with at least 5,000 residents. We updated this article for 2026, and it’s our eleventh time ranking the dumbest cities in Texas.
The full plate
Dumbest Cities In Texas For 2026
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Population | % Adult High School Dropout | % Highly Educated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pearsall | 9,045 | 38.0% | 7.0% |
| 2 | Hutchins | 7,496 | 32.0% | 6.0% |
| 3 | Galena Park | 10,487 | 35.0% | 8.0% |
| 4 | Kermit | 5,689 | 32.0% | 8.0% |
| 5 | Hereford | 14,840 | 31.0% | 8.0% |
| 6 | Gonzales | 7,200 | 33.0% | 10.0% |
| 7 | South Houston | 16,033 | 41.0% | 11.0% |
| 8 | Penitas | 6,444 | 44.0% | 11.0% |
| 9 | Hempstead | 6,137 | 27.0% | 7.0% |
| 10 | Robstown | 10,236 | 27.0% | 8.0% |
| 11 | Balch Springs | 27,255 | 28.0% | 9.0% |
| 12 | Rusk | 5,477 | 29.0% | 10.0% |
| 13 | Raymondville | 10,185 | 28.0% | 10.0% |
| 14 | Donna | 16,833 | 36.0% | 13.0% |
| 15 | Sansom Park | 5,392 | 26.0% | 8.0% |
| 16 | Socorro | 37,123 | 30.0% | 12.0% |
| 17 | Palmview | 15,921 | 35.0% | 13.0% |
| 18 | Brownfield | 8,738 | 23.0% | 7.0% |
| 19 | Bellmead | 10,566 | 30.0% | 13.0% |
| 20 | Seagoville | 19,352 | 25.0% | 10.0% |
| 21 | Forest Hill | 14,062 | 29.0% | 13.0% |
| 22 | Alvarado | 6,307 | 24.0% | 10.0% |
| 23 | San Juan | 36,149 | 36.0% | 15.0% |
| 24 | Mount Pleasant | 16,136 | 26.0% | 12.0% |
| 25 | Elsa | 5,697 | 22.0% | 8.0% |
| 26 | Everman | 6,106 | 24.0% | 11.0% |
| 27 | Alton | 20,214 | 32.0% | 15.0% |
| 28 | San Benito | 24,709 | 29.0% | 14.0% |
| 29 | Muleshoe | 5,667 | 27.0% | 13.0% |
| 30 | Roma | 11,545 | 43.0% | 16.0% |
| 31 | Wilmer | 6,391 | 42.0% | 16.0% |
| 32 | Dumas | 14,452 | 26.0% | 13.0% |
| 33 | Sinton | 5,584 | 23.0% | 11.0% |
| 34 | Childress | 5,834 | 22.0% | 10.0% |
| 35 | Monahans | 7,452 | 24.0% | 12.0% |
| 36 | Luling | 5,531 | 24.0% | 12.0% |
| 37 | Uvalde | 15,417 | 29.0% | 15.0% |
| 38 | Mercedes | 16,733 | 28.0% | 15.0% |
| 39 | Yoakum | 5,846 | 21.0% | 10.0% |
| 40 | Liberty | 8,650 | 25.0% | 14.0% |
| 41 | Plainview | 19,711 | 27.0% | 15.0% |
| 42 | Sealy | 7,053 | 23.0% | 13.0% |
| 43 | River Oaks | 7,584 | 24.0% | 14.0% |
| 44 | Kirby | 8,117 | 28.0% | 16.0% |
| 45 | Gatesville | 16,228 | 18.0% | 8.0% |
| 46 | Freeport | 10,621 | 18.0% | 7.0% |
| 47 | Port Arthur | 55,828 | 21.0% | 13.0% |
| 48 | Pasadena | 149,433 | 27.0% | 16.0% |
| 49 | Port Isabel | 5,111 | 29.0% | 17.0% |
| 50 | Alamo | 20,255 | 30.0% | 18.0% |
| 51 | La Feria | 6,891 | 26.0% | 16.0% |
| 52 | Seminole | 7,184 | 35.0% | 19.0% |
| 53 | Crockett | 6,364 | 23.0% | 15.0% |
| 54 | Mexia | 6,859 | 19.0% | 11.0% |
| 55 | Cleveland | 8,984 | 18.0% | 9.0% |
| 56 | Pharr | 80,333 | 30.0% | 18.0% |
| 57 | Giddings | 5,151 | 21.0% | 14.0% |
| 58 | Lamesa | 8,393 | 23.0% | 15.0% |
| 59 | Mineral Wells | 15,244 | 19.0% | 12.0% |
| 60 | Kaufman | 8,538 | 26.0% | 17.0% |
| 61 | Brookshire | 5,495 | 25.0% | 17.0% |
| 62 | Hondo | 8,713 | 18.0% | 11.0% |
| 63 | Snyder | 11,241 | 18.0% | 11.0% |
| 64 | Baytown | 85,205 | 21.0% | 15.0% |
| 65 | Corsicana | 25,511 | 24.0% | 17.0% |
| 66 | Littlefield | 5,822 | 22.0% | 16.0% |
| 67 | Willis | 6,878 | 22.0% | 16.0% |
| 68 | Cuero | 8,165 | 20.0% | 15.0% |
| 69 | Sweetwater | 10,385 | 19.0% | 14.0% |
| 70 | Alice | 17,707 | 19.0% | 14.0% |
| 71 | Big Spring | 23,975 | 19.0% | 14.0% |
| 72 | Lacy-Lakeview | 7,274 | 17.0% | 12.0% |
| 73 | Hillsboro | 8,506 | 20.0% | 15.0% |
| 74 | Navasota | 8,542 | 27.0% | 20.0% |
| 75 | Terrell | 20,366 | 21.0% | 16.0% |
| 76 | Richmond | 12,582 | 24.0% | 19.0% |
| 77 | Breckenridge | 5,170 | 22.0% | 17.0% |
| 78 | Vernon | 9,848 | 19.0% | 15.0% |
| 79 | Slaton | 5,761 | 15.0% | 10.0% |
| 80 | Edna | 6,027 | 18.0% | 15.0% |
| 81 | Dalhart | 7,902 | 20.0% | 16.0% |
| 82 | White Settlement | 18,150 | 21.0% | 17.0% |
| 83 | Carthage | 6,601 | 17.0% | 14.0% |
| 84 | Bonham | 10,697 | 18.0% | 15.0% |
| 85 | Levelland | 12,466 | 20.0% | 17.0% |
| 86 | Hidalgo | 14,498 | 30.0% | 23.0% |
| 87 | Perryton | 8,585 | 23.0% | 20.0% |
| 88 | Primera | 5,344 | 27.0% | 22.0% |
| 89 | Clute | 10,715 | 16.0% | 14.0% |
| 90 | Andrews | 13,468 | 21.0% | 19.0% |
| 91 | Groves | 16,976 | 16.0% | 14.0% |
| 92 | El Campo | 12,202 | 19.0% | 17.0% |
| 93 | Brownsville | 189,177 | 29.0% | 24.0% |
| 94 | Eagle Pass | 28,339 | 24.0% | 21.0% |
| 95 | Laredo | 257,619 | 27.0% | 23.0% |
| 96 | Port Lavaca | 11,358 | 21.0% | 20.0% |
| 97 | Marlin | 5,516 | 17.0% | 16.0% |
| 98 | Jacksonville | 14,325 | 22.0% | 21.0% |
| 99 | Del Rio | 34,668 | 23.0% | 22.0% |
| 100 | Santa Fe | 12,901 | 15.0% | 14.0% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. 354 cities with more than 5,000 residents.
Summary
There You Have It – Now That You’re Asleep
If you’re measuring the locations in Texas 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 Texas are Pearsall, Hutchins, Galena Park, Kermit, Hereford, Gonzales, South Houston, Penitas, Hempstead, and Robstown. Not sold on Texas? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
