West Lafayette 6th smartest small city

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - If you live in West Lafayette, you live in the sixth smartest small city in the nation. That's according to a recent study by Forbes Magazine.

Purdue Research Foundation CEO Joe Hornett said there's one factor that helped put the city in the top ten

"It's Purdue, it's Purdue University. The students that are drawn here, the faculty that are drawn here, the science that is developed here," Hornett said.

Hornett said this is the first time West Lafayette has made the Forbes top 20 of America's most educated towns. The survey polled more than 2,500 regions with 20,000 to 65,000 residents. Hornett said being ranked sixth is an accomplishment.

"You wouldn't think that being number six would be anything to write home about but when you actually take a look at the list and even the communities that are ahead of us, we're in really good company," Hornett said.

Bethesda, Maryland, Wellesley, Massachusettes, and Palo Alto, California rounded out the top three.

"West Lafayette is not a name that immediately comes to mind but those others are," Hornett said. "And it basically said that we can play on a national stage with communities like that."

And Hornett thinks West Lafayette can continue to impress and maybe someday be number one on the list.

"I'd like to think that we've got the plan in place and the momentum that at some point we will compete at the same level as communities in Silicon Valley and on the east coast," Hornett said.

Hornett said the ranking makes West Lafayette a more desirable place to live, work and go to school. He said it's a good recruiting tool and will hopefully continue to draw in intelligent people.

The survey was based on educational attainment, the number of graduate and other college degrees obtained by people in the area was divided by the population of the town over age 25. It was then weighted to give a final average for each location.