The map above tells a few interesting stories. On the surface it shows that the US is the clear leader in higher education, with 146 out of the world’s top 500 universities (29.2%). This is over 3 times more than China, the next closest country.
However, that’s not the only thing that’s interesting.
Below the surface it shows that the majority of the world’s countries don’t have a single top 500 university. This means many of today’s developing countries may find it difficult to shift their economies to more knowledge based ones as they develop.
The data comes from the The Shanghai Ranking System and the devil can be in the details. For example, while China has the second largest number of top 500 universities, it lacks a single one in the top 100. Demonstrating that while it’s closing the gap with the US, it still has a long way to go.
When taken as a region, Europe still comes out on top with 205 universities, followed by the Americas (North and South America) with 176, Asia/Pacific with 114 and Africa with only 5. However, when looking at the cream of the crop the US leads with 16 of the top 20 and 55 of the top 100. Europe on the other hand only has 4 of the top 20 and 35 of the top 100.
Here’s a look at how countries performed:
Country | Top20 | Top100 | Top200 | Top300 | Top400 | Top500 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
For a complete list of universities see Academic Ranking of World Universities 2015 and you can learn more about their methodology here.
Another way to look at the data is to look at the number of top 500 universities per million people, which yields a totally different set of rankings (data from reddit user drunken_life_coach):
- Sweden: 1.147
- Finland: 1.103
- Denmark: 0.891
- Switzerland: 0.866
- Australia: 0.865
- Israel: 0.745
- Netherlands: 0.714
- Austria: 0.708
- Ireland: 0.653
- Belgium: 0.625
- Norway: 0.590
- Canada: 0.569
- UK: 0.577
- Slovenia: 0.485
- Germany: 0.484
- USA: 0.458
- New Zealand: 0.447
- Singapore: 0.370
- Italy: 0.334
- France: 0.333
- Portugal: 0.287
- Spain: 0.278
- South Korea: 0.239
- Hungary: 0.202
- Greece: 0.181
- Japan: 0.141
- Serbia: 0.140
- Saudi Arabia: 0.139
- Chile: 0.114
- Czech Republic: 0.095
- South Africa: 0.076
- Malaysia: 0.67
- Poland: 0.052
- China: 0.032
- Brazil: 0.030
- Iran: 0.026
- Argentina: 0.024
- Russia: 0.014
- Turkey: 0.013
- Egypt: 0.012
- Mexico: 0.008
- India: 0.001
To learn more about global education have a look at the following books:
- College (Un)bound: The Future of Higher Education and What It Means for Students
- What the Best College Teachers Do
- The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way
Like this map? Then please share it with your friends.
Georgios says
This is another anglocentric boasting. In reality, Russian universities are next to none in this world.
mP says
Wonder where those Russian rocket and nuclear scientists learnt their knowledge
Ali says
Yes you are right do not believe him what is his evidence you mentionec that brilliant thing russian did iam wondering whom to listen ranking or people???
C Jasz says
Diploma does not secure a good job.
Darrell Norris says
Bad map. The color temperature effect is “off”. The eye sees red as high and light green as lowish. The value range is ill-chosen. The variable mapped is a size-dependent absolute number. Much better to map the ratios noted toward the end of the text.