Home to a booming tech industry and close to several prestigious universities, San Francisco is one of the most highly educated cities in the country. Nationwide, 14% of people over 25 have a post-graduate degree of some kind. In San Francisco, 26% do.
But within the city, where do those highly educated people live?
We used U.S. census data to examine which ZIP codes within San Francisco have the highest levels of educational attainment. The map below shows the share of residents 25 and older in each zip code with advanced degrees, including masters degrees, professional degrees like law or medicine and PhDs. The educational attainment data was collected from 2019 to 2023.
Different ZIP codes rise to the top depending on the type of degree. The ZIP code 94105, which covers the Rincon Hill area up to the Embarcadero below Market Street, had the highest share of people with a master’s degree or higher. For professional degrees, 94131, which covers Diamond Heights, Twin Peaks and Forest Knolls near the UCSF Parnassus Campus, rises to the top. And for doctorates, 94158 in Mission Bay comes in first.
To determine which of those ZIP codes is the most hyper-educated, the Chronicle created an index based on the share of people with different types of degrees. The index gives one point for the percent of people with a high school diploma, associate’s degrees earned 1.5 points, bachelor’s degrees scored two, master’s scored three, professional degrees four and doctorates five. So, for example, if half the people in a ZIP code had completed only high school and half a bachelor’s then the index would reach 1.5 (0.5*1 + 0.5*2).
Under that ranking system, the ZIP code 94105 in Rincon Hill scored the highest. ZIP code 94158, which covers Mission Bay, came in a close second.
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The two areas both have relatively high shares of people in their 30s. The Rincon Hill area, known for its luxury high rises, is close to many of the high-paying tech jobs that employ people with advanced degrees, and Mission Bay, the city’s newest neighborhood, is home to the UCSF Medical Center.
Overall, level of education correlated strongly with median income, the Chronicle found. For example, in addition to being the most educated, 94105 also had the highest median income of any San Francisco ZIP code.
But that doesn’t mean every place strictly followed that rule. ZIP code 94112 in the Excelsior and 94111 on the very edge of Telegraph Hill along the Embarcadero, for example, had the same median income, but very different levels of education attainment: only 10% of Excelsior residents over 25 had advanced degrees, while almost 40% of those in the 94111 ZIP code did.
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This article originally published at San Francisco’s most educated residents live in these ZIP codes.