Between 1980 and 2000, the population of metropolitan areas where
less than 10 percent of adults had college degrees in 1980, grew on average
by 13 percent. Among metropolitan areas where more than 25 percent
of adults had college degrees, the average population growth rate
was 45 percent. For more than a century, in both the United States and
Great Britain, cities with more educated residents have grown faster than
comparable cities with less human capital.1 There is no consensus, however,
on the causes or implications of this relationship.
Why have people increasingly crowded around the most skilled? Why
does education seem to be a more and more important ingredient in
agglomeration economies? Three disparate, but not incompatible, visions
of the modern city offer different answers to these questions. The Consumer
City view—cities are increasingly oriented around consumption
amenities, not productivity—tells us that skills predict growth because
skilled neighbors are an attractive consumption amenity. The Information
City view—cities exist to facilitate the flow of ideas—tells us that we
should expect cities to be increasingly oriented around the skilled
because the skilled specialize in ideas.