According to the census,

Only about 1/5 of Philadelphians have an undergraduate degree. Is this due to the "Brain Drain" (taxes, crime, job opportunities) or other causes?

Landscape hasn't changed much since downturn of Industrial Revolution, thus residents don't change with it?

Still, I find it hard to believe that it is only 1/5.

bunni

I wonder what percentage of the metro area has a college degree. I think the stats for the city itself may be skewed since, unlike some other cities, Philadelphia has a high percentage of ghetto. For one thing, I think Pittsburgh outranks us in terms of % of college graduates when just the city is looked at but Philadelphia is ahead if we look at metro areas.

We rank 92nd out of the 100 biggest cities with only 18% of our residents having the equivlance of a college degree. It is pretty bad.

The wage tax and the business taxes are the main reason IMO as I believe there are more international and national drug companies with headquarters in the metro area than any other city in the country. It is amazing how short sited and stupid many politicians really are when it comes to economics. 30 years ago places like Malvern used to be all farmland and country estates, no one actually worked there. That is hardly the case now...

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The thing is that even if those companies had their operations in the city and there was no wage tax, there’s still little guarantee that their employees would choose to live in the city. Philadelphia is kind of a divisive place - either you love it or you hate it. It seems to me that pharma often attracts people who favor the suburban lifestyle and would not take advantage of the things to do in a city if they lived in one. Thus, even if their job were in the city they would likely still live in the suburbs.

I don't think all of the young employees especially the collge grads would do so. But these places Malvern, Collegeville are pretty far out there and obviously the 4.5% wage tax pretty much eliminates the idea of reverse commuting. If they were already working in the city I don't see why they would not want the benefits considering they would still have to pay the wage tax.

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I work for one that has offices in both Great Valley and collegeville. While most lived in the suburbs before the move, they lived in inner ring burbs. Many of the younger folk did in fact live in the city. now, one by one, they are all moving because collegeville is so far. At least malvern has a train.

Recent college grads could care less about the wage tax, they are just happy to get a check...trust me...I used to roll with a large group of friends from college.

What most of us cared about was the cool factor, were there great places to go, meet people, etc?

I think philly just needs to seem cooler to the average recent grad, and I actually think that is starting to happen, also with housing prices compared to other metro areas, how many 25 years olds in NY or DC or Boston can buy a house? Close to the center of the city? Not many. But do remember that the average recent college grad isn't trying to buy a house, but you do get the 25-30 crowd that does.

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Is this a result of a lack of cool or a lack of jobs? Or are there other factors?

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Well, I am coming from Reading to college in Philly and am likely going ot look for a job back home before I do in Philly. Would I count in this 'brain drain' if I never lived here before?

Yes you would. I think this is a flaw in how they measure things since I've read that if you take away the factor of people moving ehre for college and then leaving afterwards, Philadelphia doesn't do so badly in terms of the brain drain. Of course other cities (Boston, NYC, etc.) probably do better at retaining people who move here from elsewhere for college but that should be a separate concern from that of people who lived here for an extended period of time and then left. A case in point is the difference between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. To look at the brain drain measurements you'd think that both cities are doing equally badly in terms of keeping young people and yet in Philadelphia you still see a large amount of young people (albeit fewer than in the top young people destination cities) while in Pittsburgh you see very few young people over college age except for the people who never went to college. I think a decent amount of people from this area who went to colelge here (or eslewhere) do stay here. It may not be up where Boston, NYC, etc. are but it is better than what msot areas in this country (Pittsburgh , Cleveland, etc.) go through which is a complete brain drain.