Australia snagged the eighth spot as the world’s most educated country, according to a 2022-2023 study conducted by CBRE Research, which analysed the number of degrees issued by higher education institutions to residents aged 25 and older, and the calibre of those institutions.
The study found that 39.8% of the working-age population Down Under hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. This earned Australia its place above Israel and Sweden, and makes it the only country in our continent to make the top 10.
World’s Most Educated Countries 2025 – Australia
In addition to being number 8 in education, Australia also ranked sixth when it comes to university quality, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering there are 34 universities ranked among the top 1,000 globally in our country, and given our annual expenditure of around 5% of the GDP on education.
When it comes to the rest of the top 10, Europe dominates the list in terms of education rate, with more than half of the top 20 countries located in the region and Ireland ranking highest: 52.4% of its working-age population holding a bachelor’s degree or higher.
India has the highest absolute number of educated individuals at 139.4 million, despite a low share of 14.2%, while the U.S. is one of the most educated countries in both percentage (40.3%) and absolute number terms (78.2 million).
Interestingly, although China has the lowest percentage in the dataset (6.9%) as of 2020, they rank second in university quality, only behind the US, with 132 among the world’s top 1,000.
The top 10 most educated countries
- Ireland (52.4%)
- Switzerland (46.0%)
- Singapore (45.0%)
- Belgium (44.1%)
- United Kingdom (43.6%)
- Netherlands (42.0%)
- United States (40.3%)
- Australia (39.8%)
- Israel (39.7%)
- Sweden (39.6%)
See the full study here.