Canada Named The World’s Most Educated Country

Canada’s impressive rate of 50 percent of our adult population having completed tertiary education, was by far the highest rate in the OECD.

We’re pretty smart, eh? We have the numbers to prove it! Canada’s high graduation rates and educated population has given us top rankings in a recent report.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development released a report called Education at a Glance 2011. Based on that report’s data, 24/7 Wall St. ranked 10 countries with the most educated populations.

Canada topped the list, thanks to our:

• Population with postsecondary education: 50 per cent (ranked 1st overall)
• Average annual growth rate (1999 – 2009): 2.3 per cent (ranked 5th lowest)
• GDP per capita: $39,070 (ranked 10th highest)
• Population change (2000 – 2009): 9.89 per cent (ranked 10th highest)

Canada’s impressive rate of 50 percent of our adult population having completed tertiary education, was by far the highest rate in the OECD.

The same data showed that, in Canada, tertiary (meaning college, university or equivalent) education spending accounts for 41 per cent of total education spending in the country. This is compared to the U.S., which spends closer to 37 per cent. All of the best-educated countries, except for the UK, fall within the top 15.

The rest of the top 5 countries ranked as follows:

2. Israel
3. Japan
4. United States
5. New Zealand