World's 10 Smartest Countries

Bangalore:  Which are the world’s smartest countries? Which country has the highest percentage of people with post-secondary education? Apparently college and university graduation rates have increased in half a century by almost 200 percent, but the rates among countries vary greatly. An interesting ranking was recently reported by Yahoo News, on the ten smartest countries of the world. Listed below are the world’s 10 smartest countries.

Canada:

Canada ranks first on the list when it comes to the smartest and educated countries. Half of the country’s adult population has a post-secondary degree, certificate or diploma. According to Yahoo, 68 percent of Canadians aged 15 and above had a post- secondary education. In 2011, 53 percent of Canadians aged 15 and over had trade certificates, college and university degrees. Each year, public and private expenditure on education amount to 2.5 percent of the GDP. Also, 71 percent of women- aged 25-44 had completed their university or college education as compared to 65 percent of men of the same age group. Meanwhile, the percentage of individuals with university degrees rose from 10.9 percent in 1990 to 22.5 percent in 2012.

Israel:

Surprisingly, Israel ranks second on the list when it comes to smartest and educated countries. Just 64 years ago, higher education was reserved for a selected few. According to the Council for Higher Learning, there were about 1,600 students who enrolled in post-secondary education. By 2010- 2011, that number skyrocketed to 206,000, 61 percent of whom were studying in the country’s universities. In fact, in 2006, 46 percent of adults aged 25-64 had tertiary education. Today Israeli graduates are known for being among the world’s leaders in the fields like engineering, physics, computer science, economics and social sciences. Some of the Israeli scholars who have made their name in science are Naum Akhieser and Amikam Aharoni.