New York City just ain’t that smart?

Despite New Yorkers’ renowned street smarts and dismissal of out-of-towners as rubes, the city tumbled to number 16 in a lineup of brainiest cities.

The Daily Beast ranked the country’s 55 largest cities, giving the top honor to Boston. But many cities, from Philadelphia at 14th to Portland at 11th, beat out New York, which held 13th last year.

But not everyone is buying it. The rankings — using data like college residents and urban libraries — are misleading, said Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at New York University’s Wagner School.

Judging entire metropolitan areas doesn’t accurately reflect, say, Manhattan, he said, because elsewhere, many educated people live in suburbs.

“But in New York, most of the smart people live in Manhattan,” Moss said.

Moss pointed out that New York has nearly 2 million college graduates — more than the entire population of some higher-ranked cities like Salt Lake City.

“We have more college graduates in NYC than any other city in America,” Moss said. “The Daily Beast needs more college grads on their editorial staff.”

New Yorkers look smarter, said Glenn Lucci, 29, visiting from 15th-ranked Milwaukee. “The way they’re dressed, they’re more sophisticated,” he said.

Brooklyn resident Kasia Haupt, 27, said New York teaches its own lessons. “People don’t come to New York to learn,” she said. “They get more life education than book smarts.”