Triad Power Ranking: Nov. 5, 2014

3. High Point

We’re looking at education levels in the Power Ranking this week, which puts High Point at a disadvantage. While Furniture City residents enjoy a high school graduation rate of 86 percent — 1.3 percent higher than Winston-Salem — they hold fewer undergraduate and graduate degrees than in any other Triad city, at 28 percent and 7.1 percent respectively. High Point scores below national rates in every category.

2. Winston-Salem

True, of the Triad cities Winston-Salem has the lowest percentage of residents with high school degrees at 84.7 percent. That’s actually pretty good considering that Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools had a graduation rate in 2014 of just 83.5 percent. But 33.7 percent of its residents have undergraduate degrees, and 12.7 percent have graduate or professional degrees, a full point above the national average of 11.57 percent, giving them enough sheepskin for second place.

1. Greensboro

In Greensboro, 87.8 of the residents have graduated high school, just a tick below the Guilford County Schools 2014 graduation rate of 88.5 percent. Just about 35 percent have attained bachelor’s degrees, the highest in the Triad and higher than the national rate of 31.66 percent, and 11.9 percent have graduate or professional degrees, a percentage point below Winston but still above the national average, giving Greensboro first place by a nose.