An educated population makes a more attractive workforce and is better prepared to instruct the next generation of residents. High educational attainment represents a region's investment in human capital and preparation for long-term growth, as well as access to educational opportunities.

In 2018-22, 53% of adults in MetroWest had at least a bachelor's degree, up from 45% in 2008-12. That was substantially higher than the national rate of 34% and also above Massachusetts' rate of 46%. Only 7% of adults in the region lacked a high school diploma, while 20% were high school graduates and 20% had attended some college. These proportions were fairly similar to the state. The nation had higher percentages of people who attended only some college (28%), were only high school graduates (26%) or lacked diplomas (11%).

Within the region, Norfolk and Middlesex counties had similar levels of education, with more than 55% of residents holding college degrees; the share was lower in Worcester County, at 38%. The percentage of adults with at least a bachelor's degree was above 80% in Carlisle, Dover, Lexington, Needham, Sherborn, Sudbury, Wellesley, and Weston. Milford had the lowest share of college degree-holders at 34%, the only town below 35%. Since 2008-12, Walpole saw the largest gain in their share of adults with college degrees (up by 14 percentage points) followed by Concord, Dedham and Medfield (all up 11 points).

Adults are people 25 and older. The multi-year figures are from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. The bureau combined five years of responses to the survey to provide estimates for smaller geographic areas and increase the precision of its estimates. However, because the information came from a survey, the samples responding to the survey were not always large enough to produce reliable results, especially in small geographic areas. CGR has noted on data tables the estimates with relatively large margins of error. Estimates with three asterisks have the largest margins, plus or minus 50% or more of the estimate. Two asterisks mean plus or minus 35%-50%, and one asterisk means plus or minus 20%-35%. For all estimates, the confidence level is 90%, meaning there is 90% probability the true value (if the whole population were surveyed) would be within the margin of error (or confidence interval).

The survey provides data on characteristics of the population that used to be collected only during the decennial census. Data for this indicator are released annually in December.