Israel is the fifth-most educated country in the world, with half of its citizens (50.12 per cent) having completed their higher education.
Canada came top, with nearly 60 per cent of its population completing a degree after secondary education, followed by Japan, Luxembourg, and South Korea.
Erudera, the education search platform that published the report, also found these countries have lower unemployment rates, relatively high GDP per capita, and higher spending on education.
It also pointed out a correlation between the top 10 most educated populations and countries that rank high in happiness per the World Happiness Report, which placed Israel ninth in 2022.
“These are all wealthy countries with stable and thriving economies, which invest a great deal in education, have high per capita GDP, and score well at the happiness index,” said Gent Ukehajdaraj, CEO and Co-founder of Erudera.
“These countries are home to some of the world’s best universities like Stanford, Oxford, and have very low unemployment rates.”
“Data shows that the more educated the people of a country are, the more developed that country is economically. As a result, the quality of life in that country is also better.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the report found that unemployment increased much more for people without tertiary education.
Erudera’s report also suggests that better-educated adults find it easier to adopt new technologies. 71 per cent of 55-74 year-olds that completed tertiary education managed to use online or video calls during the pandemic. Only 34 per cent of similarly-aged adults that did not complete their higher education could do the same.
The rest of the countries on the top 10 list were the US, Ireland, the UK, Australia, and Finland.
