This video was made possible by WIX.
If you are ready to create a website, head over to wix.com/go/infographics to try out
one of their premium plans right now.
We’ll start this show with a disclaimer, in that judging smartness is not always an
easy thing to do.
We know Einstein was smart, but he was the man that told us education starts once you’ve
forgotten what you learned in school.
The undeniably witty and wise American writer and social critic Mark Twain hardly had any
formal education at all, and we know that smart entrepreneurs that make millions are
not always academically minded.
You could have a very high IQ and still fail in matters of work, marriage, or mere survival
from day to day.
So, on that rationale, how do we judge smart and how on Earth can we say a country is smart?
Well, with a bit of education data and other resources, we were able to draw some conclusions.
Welcome to this episode of the Infographics Show, Smartest Countries Around the World.
Ok, so we could just look at IQ, and Hong Kong would be top according to one resource,
followed by South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore.
But let’s focus on the latest report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD), which takes test results into account and gives each country a score.
OECD bases its results on what it calls the PISA (or Program for International Student
Assessment) which tests 15-year old students around the world in math, reading and science.
Each country gets a ranking for each subject, but everything is tallied up and so there
is an overall score.
We will look at that overall score and also how each country did in each category.
Let us begin.
20.
United Kingdom The UK scored highest in science overall,
coming in 15th place.
For math and reading, it was outside of the top 20.
19.
Austria The BBC reports that even though Austria gets
19th place overall, the only time it makes the top 20 for a category is when it gets
20th place for math with a score of 497.
18.
Slovenia Slovenia did well overall, getting 14th place
in math with a score of 510, 14th place in reading with a score of 505, and 13th place
in science with a score of 513.
Taking that into account, it seems Slovenia should be higher than 18th.
All we can do is tell you what the sources say.
17.
New Zealand The Kiwis claimed 20th place in math with
a score of 495, 10th place in reading with a score of 509, and 12th place in science
with a score of 513.
We should note here that some countries score the same in some subjects.
16.
Belgium Belgium achieved a score of 507 in math, making
it 15th placed.
In science, the country got 20th place in reading with a score of 499, and 20th place
in science with a score of 502.
15.
Ireland The Irish claimed 18th place in math with
a score of 504, a pretty good 5th place in reading with a score of 521, and 19th place
in science with a score of 503.
14.
Australia The Ozzies took the 15th spot, but didn’t
even make the top 20 in math.
But they did come on strong in reading at 16th place with a score of 503, and even better
in science, claiming the 14th spot with a score of 510.
13.
Germany Germany claimed 16th place in math with a
score of 506, 11th place in reading with a score of 509, and 16th place in science with
again a score of 509.
12.
Vietnam Vietnam scored the same as New Zealand in
math, so it also can lay claim to the 20th spot.
The country wasn’t close to the top 20 in reading, but in science, Vietnam can be proud
of taking the 8th spot with a score of 525.
11.
Poland The Poles were just behind the Germans in
math in 17th place with a score of 504.
In reading, the country came in 13th with a score of 506, and in science it was just
out of the top 20.
10.
Canada Canada was pretty good all round, achieving
10th place in math with a score of 516, a superb joint second place in reading with
a score of 527, and 7th place in science with a score of 528.
9.
Netherlands The Dutch claimed 9th in math with a score
of 512, 15th place in reading with score of 503, and 17th in science with a score of 509.
We might ask here again why Canada is placed behind the Dutch.
Besides this, the rankings seem to hold up.
8.
Switzerland The Swiss came 8th in math with a score of
521.
The country wasn’t in the top 20 for reading, and in science it came in 18th with a score
of 506.
7.
Estonia The Estonians were a point behind the Swiss
in math in 9th place, but claimed 6th place in reading with a score of 519.
In science, the country was placed in a commendable 3rd place with a score of 534.
6.
Finland Finland got 13th place in math with a score
of 511, 4th place in reading with a score of 526, and 5th place in science with a score
of 531.
5.
Taiwan Taiwan was actually given joint 5th place
with Japan overall.
It claimed 4th in math with a score of 542, but didn’t make the top 20 for reading.
That didn’t matter much as the Taiwanese claimed 4th in science with a score of 532.
4.
Japan So, Japan was actually given the same overall
score as Taiwan, but in math the country claimed 5th place with a score of 532.
In reading, it claimed 8th place with a score of 516, and in science Japan got an impressive
second place with a score of 538.
3.
South Korea Following this Asian trend, South Korea did
well overall.
In math the country placed 7th with score of 524.
In reading it claimed the 7th spot, again with a score of 517, and in science it was
placed 11th with a score of 516.
2.
Hong Kong Hong Kong claimed second place in math with
a score of 548.
In reading it took the second spot again with a score of 527, and in science, 9th place
with a score of 523.
1.
Singapore
You might have noticed that we haven’t said 1st place yet, and that is because Singapore
beat every country in every category.
It was first in math with a score of 564 – way higher than other countries – first in reading
with a score of 535, and first in science with a score of 556.
Again, way above second place.
You might note that these scores reflect the average IQ scores we mentioned at the beginning
of the show.
As we said already, these scores don’t necessarily mean Singapore is full of little geniuses,
but rather that students there, on average, are certainly good at taking tests.
One thing left off the tests is creativity, and without that you are missing a key element
in success.
But it’s not something that is easy to assess, either.
In the case of how countries were ranked overall, if some of those rankings don’t seem right,
we suggest you just look at each individual subject.
Whether you are the smartest person in the world, or not, the smartest thing you can
do is create a website for your hobby or business.
WIX is a super easy, yet professional and robust platform for creating, managing and
hosting your websites.
With WIX you will never have to worry if your website is safe and secure, or if it will
go down because you did something… stupid.
WIX offers you true creative freedom when designing your website that is limited only
by your own imagination!
WIX is a perfect platform where you can use a custom domain for anything from a blog to
a website for a restaurant.
WIX does all the heavy lifting.
You can finally create that amazing website that you’ve been too afraid of making because
maybe you just didn’t know how.
Go to wix.com/go/infographics or click the link in the description and support The Infographics
Show at the same time.
There will always be people who are better at things in life than you, but they don’t
have to have a better website!
We’re sure it didn’t go unnoticed that one country that didn't make the top 20 list
is the United States.
Any idea why that is?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video called Private School vs Public School!
Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.
See you next time!