Study: U.S. Ranks 25th on Smartness Scale

As millions of Americans are paying off their student loans, a combined $1.814 trillion as of August 2025, many rightfully wonder whether their investment was worth it. To shed more light on the validity of their concerns and show how the U.S. ultra-expensive educational system compares to the rest of the world, Martin Tunchev — data analyst at the finance research platform TradingPlatforms —  shared the platform’s latest piece of research that examines how nations are translating education, cognitive ability, and scientific output into tangible ‘smartness’.

To discover the smartest countries in the world, the team at TradingPlatforms analysed the latest available results from OECD’s PISA tests on science, math, and reading for 77 countries (results for 2022). We also factored in the total number of scientific publications per capita in 2024, as well as the average IQ scores reported for these nations. This helped us create a final ‘smartness’ ranking, which is available in full on Google Drive via this link.

Our research shows that the United States ranks 25th on the Smartness Index with 47.8 points out of 100. Hong Kong ranks as the smartest country, achieving an almost perfect score of 94 points out of 100 on the weighted ranking. It is followed by Singapore (81.6/100), Switzerland (72.2/100), Taiwan (66.3/100), and Japan (64.4/100)

Top 10 Smartest Countries In The World

1. Hong Kong – The Chinese city-state of Hong Kong takes the top spot in our ranking, scoring 94 out of 100 on the overall Smartness Index. It also leads the world in research output, with an average of 548.5 scientific papers per million residents.
2. Singapore – With a Smartness Score of 81.6 out of 100, Singapore ranks second overall, but it leads the world in one key measure: PISA 2022 results. Its students achieved the highest average scores across maths, science, and reading at 560, 27 points ahead of the countries with the second highest score, Taiwan and Japan which both average 533.
3. Switzerland – The smartest country in Europe and the third smartest globally, Switzerland, scores 72.2 out of 100 on the smartness ranking. This strong result is driven by a high average IQ of 100.8 and an exceptional research output, with 3,967 scientific publications in 2024 alone, equivalent to 442.4 per million people.
4. Taiwan – Taiwan has the world’s highest average IQ at 107.1, edging ahead of Hong Kong’s average of 107.06 by 0.4 points and achieving a final result of 66.3 points out of 100.
5. Japan – Scoring 64.4 out of 100 on the smartness scale, Japan ranks fifth in the world and 4th in Asia in terms of pure smarts. Its youngsters performed brilliantly on the PISA 2022 results, particularly in reading and science, where they matched Taiwan’s 533 point average.
6. South Korea – South Koreans have the third-highest average IQ in the world at 106.43, only behind those of Hong Kong and Taiwan. The country also did fairly well in the PISA 2022 test, ranking fourth in the world with an average score of 523.
7. Iceland – Due to Iceland having the smallest overall population out of all 77 countries we examined, the country ranks third in scientific publication per million residents (374.1), only surpassed by Switzerland (442.3) and Hong Kong (548.5).
8. Denmark – With a smartness score of 57.9/100, Denmark ranks as the eighth smartest country in the world and the third smartest in Europe. One of its greatest strengths lies in research output, with 1,887 scientific papers published in 2024, the equivalent of 314.3 per million inhabitants.
9. Australia – The average IQ in Australia is 102.57, placing it 7th in the world in terms of IQ. The country’s 43 world-class universities publish thousands of high-quality research papers, with nearly 4,000 in 2024 alone.
10. Canada – Canadian students achieved a median score of 506 in the 2022 PISA assessments, ranking seventh globally, just behind Estonia’s 516. The country ranks 10th in the global smartness ranking with a combined score of 55.4 out of 100.

…..25. United States – The United States is a research powerhouse, leading the world in the sheer number of scientific research papers, with its universities producing an impressive 31,930 papers in 2024 alone. However, due to its large population of over 340 million and average performance on other key metrics, it ranks 25th out of 77 countries in overall “smartness” with a combined score of 47.8/100.

 

Other key takeaways from our report:

• In 2024 alone, researchers in the United States published a staggering 31,930 scientific articles, the highest total globally. However, due to its large population, the U.S. ranks only 23rd in per-capita research output, with 91.9 publications per million residents. By contrast, Hong Kong leads the world in this measure, producing 548.5 scientific articles per million people.
• Singaporean students achieved the highest average scores across all three categories: maths, reading, and science, in the OECD’s PISA 2022 programme, with a combined score of 560. This is 27 points higher than Japan, which recorded the second-highest average of 533.
• Taiwan boasts the world’s highest average IQ at 107.1, with Hong Kong and South Korea close behind on 107.06 and 106.43, respectively.

Students from the United States delivered strong results on the OECD PISA 2022 tests, excelling in reading, where they ranked 8th in the world with a score of 504, and in science, where they came in 15th. Math proved more challenging, with a score of 465, bringing the overall average score to 489 and placing the U.S. 17th in the PISA 2022 test rankings. The country’s average IQ stands at 99.74, while its 91.9 research paper publications per million residents contribute to an overall ‘smartness’ score of 47.8 out of 100, making the United States the 25th smartest country on the planet.

 

‘High average IQ levels provide the foundation for strong educational performance, which, in turn, reflects in higher test scores among students. Well-educated populations feed into universities and research institutions, driving greater scientific output and innovation. This pattern is clear in East Asian countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, where high IQ averages are matched by world-leading PISA results and substantial research activity. By contrast, countries like the United States and Germany produce vast volumes of research largely due to scale and funding, despite more modest PISA results relative to smaller nations. Smaller European states such as Finland, Estonia, and Switzerland illustrate yet another path: leveraging excellent schooling systems or concentrated research investment to achieve high smartness scores despite limited population size.’

-comments Martin Tunchev, data analyst at TradingPlatforms.co.uk

 

The report aggregates data from the World Population Review, OECD Pisa 2022 Results, Nature Index Research Leaders Data for 2024, and International IQ Test to produce a consistent, comparable dataset for 77 countries from three measurable dimensions: student performance, high-quality scientific output and measured cognitive ability. Each indicator is converted to a 0-100 scale using transparent min-max standardisation, then averaged (equal weights) to form the overall Smartness Score for each country..

More information and the complete methodology can be found in the full report. The raw dataset is also available on Google Drive via the following link.