Rumors that Philadelphia is the college capital of America have circulated in the region for more than 20 years -- but they really just aren't true.
Recently updated figures reveal that the Philadelphia region -- including parts of Delaware and New Jersey -- ranks seventh among U.S. cities in terms of the number of college students in the area.
The figures -- which were compiled by the Pennsylvania Economy League -- will serve this organization and others in their efforts to keep college students in the area after graduation.
PEL Executive Director David Thornburgh said that the misconception stems from an article published by The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1982, which reported that Philadelphia had more college students than Boston.
According to PEL's data, the New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston and Washington regions all have more college students than Philadelphia.
Thornburgh said that these data have been moderately consistent over the past five years.
He added that the rank of Philadelphia is not as important as whether the number of students translates into the number of individuals who choose to work in the city after graduation.
"Even if your percentage of [students] who stay here stays the same, you will end up more [workers]," Thornburgh said. "Sixty percent of 100 is more than 60 percent of 50, so it is our interest to have as many college students as possible."
Research that PEL conducted about a year and a half ago showed that about two-thirds of Philadelphia college students remain in the region.
The rate increases to 86 percent for students who attended both high school and college in Philadelphia.
Jon Herrmann -- executive director of Campus Philly, an organization with the sole aim of keeping students in Philadelphia -- said that the area has been increasing its student population at a pace faster than many of its competitors.
"I think that we are outpacing the rest of the country," Herrmann said, "but I don't know the specific region-to-region matchup."
Herrmann agreed with Thornburgh that the raw number of students is more important than its comparison to other cities.
Currently, there are 252,744 students in the region. No data were available comparing this number to last year's.
Herrmann said that cities need a high percentage of college students because the most profitable markets require highly skilled labor.
"As a competitive basis, having a degree of higher education is a major predictor of how successful you will be," Herrmann said.
Having a quarter of a million college students, he said, gives Philadelphia a "good chance" at retaining many of them.
Region rivalry - Local college students: 252,744 - Chicago, Washington, Boston, San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles have more
