Topic 04 of 18 · Country Index 2026

Education & Knowledge

How far does a country's schooling carry its children?

South Korea is placed first of 171 countries on education & knowledge in the Country Index 2026, and South Sudan 171st. The standing rests on 4 key statistics; the other 22 on this page are published as context, with no vote.

Placed first · Country Index 2026South Korea

1st of 171

171countries placed
53measured, not placed
4key statistics
26statistics in all
6publishers
2023–2025the years the keys describe

01Country Index 2026

Who leads on education & knowledge

The three countries placed highest of 171, the three placed lowest, and the country placed highest on each continent. Each position is a place in this topic’s own list, built from its key statistics.

1
South Korea
Eastern Asia
1st of 171 · 2 of 4 keys
Photo: Unknown author · CC BY-SA 2.0, greyscale
2
Uzbekistan
Central Asia
2nd of 171 · 4 of 4 keys
Photo: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra · CC BY 2.0, greyscale
3
Poland
Eastern Europe
3rd of 171 · 2 of 4 keys
Photo: Ralf Lotys (Sicherlich) · CC BY 3.0, greyscale

Placed lowest on Education & Knowledge

Positions out of 171. A standing is relative: it says where a country places against the others measured, not that it scored zero.

Placed first on each continent · position among all 171

02The subject

About education & knowledge

What a country teaches and how far its people get. Whether children are in school at all, whether they start before primary age, whether the ones who start actually finish, how many years of schooling a child entering today can expect, what the state spends to provide it, and how many adults can read. These are the slowest investments a country makes: the spending is counted now and the result arrives a generation later, which is why the two are measured separately here.

Education is measured here as a journey with a floor and a destination. The floor is whether children of primary age are in school at all; the destination is whether those who start actually finish the upper secondary years that open the way to further study and skilled work, and whether young people leave able to read and write.

Alongside that reach sits what a state chooses to invest. Spending is an input rather than a result, and it is kept separate from completion because the two arrive a generation apart: the money is counted now, and the adults it educates appear years later.

What this topic does not measure

How much children actually learn is only partly covered. International test scores exist for a limited group of countries, and they are published here as context rather than used as a key, because a key must describe most of the world. Universities, research and adult literacy also appear as context.

03The evidence

The 4 statistics that decide it

These are the only statistics that place countries on education & knowledge — one vote each. Every number is somebody else’s research, reproduced without adjustment; the ordering on top is this site’s.

Key 1 of 4
Youth Literacy Rate
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
Why it is a key: Whether 15- to 24-year-olds can read and write — the only key here that tests what a schooling system produced, rather than how many passed through it or what it cost.
Edition used
2024data for 2024
Countries
132
Publisher’s rank
None — values only
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Every country, every edition
Key 2 of 4
Upper Secondary Completion Rate
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
Why it is a key: How far a schooling system carries the young people who get through primary — the only key here that measures anything past childhood.
Edition used
2025data for 2025
Countries
164
Publisher’s rank
None — values only
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Current leader, 2025 editionSouth Korea
Every country, every edition
Key 3 of 4
Government Spending on Education
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
Why it is a key: What a state chooses to spend on education, as a share of its economy — the input, where the other two keys measure reach.
Edition used
2023data for 2023
Countries
123
Publisher’s rank
None — values only
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Current leader, 2023 editionKiribati
Every country, every edition
Key 4 of 4
Out-of-School Rate, Primary
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
Why it is a key: Primary-age children who are not in school at all: the floor of an education system.
Edition used
2024data for 2024
Countries
121
Publisher’s rank
None — values only
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Most affected, 2024 editionSouth Sudan
Every country, every edition
How the keys combine
Each country’s value on each key becomes its place in that key’s own field, as a share of the field. The shares are averaged, one vote per key, and only the order that produces is published.
The method in full

04Every placed country

Education & Knowledge on a map

Darker is placed higher. Hover a country for its position, or select it to open its page. Below the map, each continent’s median position — half its placed countries sit at or above it, so lower is better.

All regions

1st171stNot placed · 53 countries with too few key statisticsNo data

1st of 5 continents
Europe
28th
median position, of 171 · 29 of its 49 countries placed
HighestPoland
2nd of 5 continents
Oceania
57th
median position, of 171 · 14 of its 21 countries placed
HighestAustralia
3rd of 5 continents
Asia
77th
median position, of 171 · 45 of its 52 countries placed
HighestSouth Korea
4th of 5 continents
Americas
93rd
median position, of 171 · 34 of its 48 countries placed
HighestTurks and Caicos Islands
5th of 5 continents
Africa
139th
median position, of 171 · 49 of its 55 countries placed
HighestMauritius
Every region

All 21 sub-regions on Education & Knowledge, best median first

1Australia and New Zealandmedian 8thfrom 2 of 2Australia8
2Eastern Europemedian 18thfrom 9 of 10Poland3
3Western Europemedian 19thfrom 5 of 9Switzerland=4
4Polynesiamedian 21stfrom 4 of 7Tuvalu15
5Central Asiamedian 30thfrom 5 of 5Uzbekistan2
6Northern Europemedian 32ndfrom 7 of 13Lithuania=4
7Western Asiamedian 46thfrom 16 of 19United Arab Emirates7
8Southern Europemedian 47thfrom 8 of 17Italy12
9South Americamedian 59thfrom 12 of 12Peru=32
10Eastern Asiamedian 60thfrom 5 of 8South Korea1
11Northern Africamedian 62ndfrom 4 of 6Algeria50
12Micronesiamedian 74thfrom 4 of 7Palau=28
13Southern Africamedian 81stfrom 4 of 5South Africa66
14Melanesiamedian 89thfrom 4 of 5Fiji76
15Caribbeanmedian 95thfrom 14 of 24Turks and Caicos Islands=32
16Southern Asiamedian 96thfrom 9 of 9India49
17South-eastern Asiamedian 98thfrom 10 of 11Vietnam68
18Central Americamedian 115thfrom 8 of 8Mexico=44
19Middle Africamedian 137thfrom 8 of 9São Tomé and Príncipe83
20Western Africamedian 143rdfrom 16 of 16Cabo Verde65
21Eastern Africamedian 148thfrom 17 of 19Mauritius=36

05The whole field

Where all 171 countries stand

In order, best first. A row resting on fewer keys rests on less evidence: a country needs 2 of the 4 to be placed at all. “=” marks a position shared with another country. Select a country to see the working behind its standing.

The full Country Index 2026

Search this list

Showing 25 of 171 countries placed on Education & Knowledge

53 countries measured in the index but not placed on education & knowledge

Each holds readings on too few of this topic’s key statistics to be placed. Their profiles still show every reading the publishers give.

06Beyond the headline

A different story

The countries placed furthest above and below their overall position in the Country Index 2026. Both positions are compared as a share of their own field, because 50th of 193 and 50th of 174 are not the same showing.

Placed higher on Education & Knowledge than overall

Placed lower on Education & Knowledge than overall

07In records

Education in records

One country at the extreme of a statistic under this topic, read from its newest edition. Where countries tie at the top, no record is named.

All statistics

Highest PISA mathematics score
Singapore
574.66
mean score of 15-year-olds
OECD · data for 2022
Highest upper secondary completion
South Korea
99.27
% of young people completing
UIS · data for 2025
Most years of schooling
Germany
14.3
mean years, adults aged 25+
UNDP Human Development Report Office · data for 2023

08Context, no vote

Also measured under education & knowledge

22 more statistics on the same subject, published in full and deliberately given no vote — keeping them out is what stops the standing drifting toward whichever kind of statistic was imported most. Select a row for its leader and trend.

All statistics

Expected Years of SchoolingUNDP Human Development Report Office · 195 countries · 2023UNDP Human Development Report Office1952023
Current leader:Monaco
UNDP Human Development Report Office · 34 editions, data 1990–2023
Chart and every country The 2023 dataset
Mean Years of SchoolingUNDP Human Development Report Office · 193 countries · 2023UNDP Human Development Report Office1932023
Current leader:Germany
UNDP Human Development Report Office · 34 editions, data 1990–2023
Chart and every country The 2023 dataset
Academic Freedom IndexV-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg · 176 countries · 2025V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg1762025
Current leader:Czechia
V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg · 36 editions, data 1990–2025
Chart and every country The 2025 dataset
Adult Literacy RateUIS · 172 countries · 2024UIS1722024
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) · 1 edition
Chart and every country The 2024 dataset
Harmonized Test ScoresWorld Bank Group · 172 countries · 2020World Bank Group1722020
Current leader:Singapore
World Bank Group · 4 editions, data 2010–2020
Chart and every country The 2020 dataset
Learning-Adjusted Years of SchoolWorld Bank Group · 172 countries · 2020World Bank Group1722020
Current leader:Singapore
World Bank Group · 4 editions, data 2010–2020
Chart and every country The 2020 dataset
Primary Completion RateUIS · 165 countries · 2025UIS1652025
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) · 45 editions, data 1981–2025
Chart and every country The 2025 dataset
Researchers per Million InhabitantsUIS · 145 countries · 2024UIS1452024
Current leader:Liechtenstein
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) · 1 edition
Chart and every country The 2024 dataset
Learning PovertyWorld Bank Group and UNESCO Institute for Statistics · 125 countries · 2023World Bank Group and UNESCO Institute for Statistics1252023
Most affected:Zambia
World Bank Group and UNESCO Institute for Statistics · 1 edition
Chart and every country The 2023 dataset
Pre-Primary Net Enrolment RateUIS · 120 countries · 2024UIS1202024
Current leader:Moldova
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) · 26 editions, data 1999–2024
Chart and every country The 2024 dataset
Secondary School EnrolmentUIS · 109 countries · 2024UIS1092024
Current leader:Monaco
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) · 50 editions, data 1971–2024
Chart and every country The 2024 dataset
Tertiary Enrolment RatioUIS · 95 countries · 2024UIS952024
Current leader:Macau
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) · 52 editions, data 1971–2024
Chart and every country The 2024 dataset
Upper Secondary AttainmentUIS · 95 countries · 2023UIS952023
Current leader:Belarus
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) · 23 editions, data 2000–2023
Chart and every country The 2023 dataset
Research and Development SpendingUIS · 84 countries · 2023UIS842023
Current leader:Israel
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) · 28 editions, data 1996–2023
Chart and every country The 2023 dataset
PISA Mathematics PerformanceOECD · 79 countries · 2022OECD792022
Current leader:Singapore
OECD · 7 editions, data 2003–2022
Chart and every country The 2022 dataset
PISA Reading PerformanceOECD · 79 countries · 2022OECD792022
Current leader:Singapore
OECD · 8 editions, data 2000–2022
Chart and every country The 2022 dataset
PISA Science PerformanceOECD · 79 countries · 2022OECD792022
Current leader:Singapore
OECD · 6 editions, data 2006–2022
Chart and every country The 2022 dataset
School Life ExpectancyUIS · 77 countries · 2024UIS772024
Current leader:Monaco
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) · 50 editions, data 1971–2024
Chart and every country The 2024 dataset
Inbound Mobility Rate, TertiaryUIS · 76 countries · 2024UIS762024
Current leader:San Marino
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) · 26 editions, data 1999–2024
Chart and every country The 2024 dataset
Government Funding per Primary StudentUIS · 68 countries · 2022UIS682022
Current leader:South Korea
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) · 24 editions, data 1999–2022
Chart and every country The 2022 dataset

Describing the shape of a country (2)

These have no better end — more is not better or worse, only different — so they could not place countries even as keys.

Female Share of ResearchersUIS · 153 countries · 2024UIS1532024
Highest:Myanmar
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) · 1 edition
Chart and every country The 2024 dataset
Outbound Mobility Ratio, TertiaryUIS · 117 countries · 2023UIS1172023
Highest:Cook Islands
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) · 26 editions, data 1998–2023
Chart and every country The 2023 dataset

09Keep reading

Explore further

All topics

The most-read profiles, on Education & Knowledge

How Education & Knowledge relates to the other topics

Moves most with: Development & Human CapitalCountries place similarly on both. (0.78, 166 countries)
Moves most with: Health & WellbeingCountries place similarly on both. (0.75, 166 countries)
Moves least with: Environment & SustainabilityCountries placed high on one tend to place low on the other. (-0.72, 153 countries)

Rank correlation of the two topics’ positions across the countries placed on both: 1 means the same order, 0 no link. Every pair of topics

The other topics

The full Country Index 2026

10Method

Questions, method and sources

Which country is placed first on education & knowledge in the Country Index 2026?

South Korea, of the 171 countries given a standing on Education & Knowledge. The standing is this site’s own, built from 4 key statistics by 6 publishers; it is not a rank any of those publishers printed.

Which country is placed last on education & knowledge?

South Sudan, 171st of 171. A standing says how a country places against the others measured alongside it, so it moves when they move.

Which statistics decide the Education & Knowledge standing?

Youth Literacy Rate, Upper Secondary Completion Rate, Government Spending on Education, Out-of-School Rate, Primary. Each is read at one edition and turned into a place within its own field; the places are averaged with one vote each. The other 22 statistics on this topic are published as context and have no vote.

Why is a country not placed on education & knowledge?

A country needs readings on at least 2 of the 4 key statistics before it is placed. 53 countries in the Country Index fall short on this topic; every reading the publishers do give for them is still on their profiles.

Are these the publishers’ own rankings?

The underlying numbers and any printed ranks are the publishers’, reproduced without adjustment on each statistic’s page. The standing that combines them is this site’s, and the average it is ordered by is never published — only the position it produces.

How the Education & Knowledge standing is decided, step by step

A standing is a place in a list, not a mark out of anything. This one is part of the Country Index 2026, and it is worked out like this.

A few key indicators decide it; the rest are context. 4 indicators on this topic are keys and 22 are charted alongside them without a vote. That split is the point: if every statistic voted, importing five more of one kind would quietly change what the topic is about.
Each key is read at one edition. ⚠ The keys behind this standing do not all describe the same year — they run from 2023 to 2025, because publishers release on their own schedules. Read the standing as “how this country places now”, not as a snapshot of one year.
Every country’s published value is turned into a place within that one key’s own field, and then expressed as a share of that field — how far down this key’s list the country sits, rather than how many countries are above it. Keys where a higher published number is worse (terrorism, hunger, disaster risk) are turned round first, so the good end is always the same end.
Dividing by the field first is the whole reason this works. A place carries the size of its list inside it: 22nd of 44 and 108th of 215 are the same showing, and averaging the numbers 22 and 108 says loudly that they are not. Fields on this site run from about 44 countries to about 215, so averaging raw places would reward a country for happening to be measured in small ones. Dividing each place by its own field removes the size and leaves only the showing.
The shares are averaged, plainly. One key, one vote — no key is weighted above another, because any weighting would be this site’s opinion presented as a measurement. Countries are then put in order by that average, and the average itself is never published. It is our arithmetic with nothing anchoring it, so printing it would invite it to be read as a measurement somebody made. The position it produces, the band, and the keys it was built from are all published instead — every one of them checkable against the tables on this page.
A country needs 2 of this topic’s 4 keys — half, rounded up, and never fewer than 2. A standing built from one reading, printed beside one built from four, is two different things sharing a column heading. 171 countries clear the bar here.
A key has to earn its vote every edition. It must measure at least 120 countries (below that it starts measuring who was surveyed rather than the world), it must not have more than 10% of its field tied at either end, and it must not repeat another key in the same topic — Spearman correlation above 0.92 counts as repeating. A topic needs at least 2 surviving keys to place anyone at all; this one has 4.
A standing is relative, and the grouping is ours. It says where a country places against the others measured alongside it, so it moves when they move. The publishers listed on this page did not agree to be read together, and each measures its subject its own way: the underlying numbers are theirs, the ordering on top is this site’s — the same method as the rest of the Country Index, applied to one subject instead of all of them.

The key statistics and their licences

Youth Literacy Rate — UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), CC BY-SA 4.0
Upper Secondary Completion Rate — UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), CC BY-SA 4.0
Government Spending on Education — UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), CC BY-SA 4.0
Out-of-School Rate, Primary — UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), CC BY-SA 4.0

The other 22 statistics on this page come from 6 publishers, each named beside its numbers, with every edition and licence on the datasets pages.

The standing itself is part of the Country Index 2026, published under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Photographs

The countries placed highest, from their profiles: Wikimedia Commons, shown in greyscale, each used under the licence named.

South Korea — Unknown author, CC BY-SA 2.0
Uzbekistan — Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, CC BY 2.0
Poland — Ralf Lotys (Sicherlich), CC BY 3.0

Cite this page

Nations Inquiry (2026). Education & Knowledge: country standings, Country Index 2026. https://nationsinquiry.com/topics/education