GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan
Population: 192,294
Unemployment: 4.2 percent
Population Growth Since 2010: 2.3 percent
Home to five of the world’s leading makers of office furniture, Grand Rapids posts solid export numbers—$7.7 billion in exported goods ranks 46th in the nation. But that number figures to grow dramatically given that the amount of college-educated residents has increased 92 percent since 2000. Grand Rapids was listed as one of the top five smartest cities in the U.S. by Forbes, ahead of Washington D.C., and just behind Silicon Valley’s San Jose.