Education Index by Country 2024

Education is a fundamental part of modern human society and with good reason. The easier educational opportunities are to access in a country and the more educated that society is overall, the greater the overall well-being of that country’s society.

However, accurately measuring and tracking the average level of education from country to country can be challenging, The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) regularly publishes a Human Development Index (HDI) that includes an Education Index. The purpose of the Education Index is to lend insight into the comparative educational development of countries around the world.

Here's a closer look at some of the countries with the highest overall Education Index scores, as well as some key determining factors that can affect these numbers.

Countries with the Highest Education Index Scores Worldwide

As of 2023, the following countries have the highest scores on UNDP’s Education Index.

Country	Education Index 2021
Australia	1.01
New Zealand	0.99
Iceland	0.99
Finland	0.96
Sweden	0.96
Belgium	0.96
Denmark	0.95
Germany	0.94
Netherlands	0.94
Norway	0.94

Additional countries with reasonably high scores include Greece, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Slovenia, Canada, Ireland, the United States, Lithuania, and Latvia.

Conversely, populations in areas with limited access to quality schooling scored much lower overall. Examples include multiple nations across Africa, such as Chad, Niger, and South Sudan.

Factors Potentially Impacting Education Index Scores by Country

Naturally, a country’s educational system can be fairly complex, so numerous factors can come into play and affect scores one way or the other. The following are some key examples to be aware of.

Access to Quality Education

There are numerous subfactors that can impact a population’s actual access to quality education in the first place. Examples include but may not be limited to regional obstacles, gender disparities, and various inadequacies or inequalities within the educational system itself.

Cultural Values

Not all countries have the same values regarding education, culturally speaking. In many countries, a good education and academic achievement are indeed vitally important, valued, and encouraged. However, in other nations or regions, getting married and starting a family may be of greater concern.

Economic Standing

On average, wealthier countries tend to have significantly better education systems. There’s more capital to invest in educational infrastructure, adequate training for educators, student resources, and so forth. The same goes for countries with ample governmental support for education.

Greater financial investment typically goes hand in hand with a better-educated society overall.

Values for 2020, 2021, and 2023 were calculated using official data and should be considered educated estimates.

193 countries

Country	Education Index 2022	Education Index 2021	Education Index (Estimated) 2020	Education Index 2019	Education Index 2018	Education Index 2017
Australia	1.01	1.01	1.01	0.92	0.92	0.92
Iceland	0.99	0.99	0.97	0.93	0.92	0.91
New Zealand	0.98	0.99	0.96	0.93	0.92	0.92
Germany	0.96	0.94	0.95	0.94	0.94	0.94
Denmark	0.96	0.95	0.95	0.92	0.92	0.92
Finland	0.96	0.96	0.96	0.93	0.93	0.93
Norway	0.95	0.94	0.94	0.93	0.93	0.93
United Kingdom	0.94	0.93	0.92	0.95	0.94	0.93
Netherlands	0.94	0.94	0.93	0.91	0.91	0.91
Belgium	0.94	0.96	0.95	0.9	0.9	0.9
Sweden	0.94	0.96	0.94	0.92	0.91	0.91
Greece	0.94	0.94	0.93	0.85	0.83	0.83
Switzerland	0.92	0.92	0.92	0.9	0.9	0.89
Ireland	0.92	0.91	0.91	0.92	0.92	0.92
United States	0.91	0.91	0.92	0.9	0.9	0.9
Canada	0.91	0.92	0.91	0.89	0.89	0.89
Lithuania	0.91	0.9	0.9	0.9	0.89	0.89
Slovenia	0.91	0.92	0.91	0.91	0.9	0.89
Palau	0.91	0.86	0.91	0.85	0.85	0.85
Argentina	0.9	0.87	0.88	0.85	0.84	0.84
United Arab Emirates	0.9	0.86	0.9	0.8	0.8	0.78
Hong Kong	0.9	0.89	0.9	0.88	0.87	0.86
Latvia	0.9	0.89	0.9	0.88	0.88	0.88
Georgia	0.89	0.86	0.88	0.86	0.85	0.84
Estonia	0.89	0.89	0.61	0.88	0.88	0.88
South Korea	0.88	0.88	0.88	0.86	0.86	0.86
Poland	0.88	0.88	0.88	0.87	0.87	0.87
Czech Republic	0.88	0.88	0.88	0.89	0.89	0.89
Marshall Islands	0.88	0.65	0.87	0.71	0.71	0.71
Austria	0.87	0.85	0.86	0.86	0.87	0.86
Singapore	0.87	0.85	0.86	0.92	0.92	0.91
Saint Kitts and Nevis	0.87	0.72	0.87	0.67	0.66	0.66
Israel	0.86	0.89	0.86	0.88	0.88	0.88
Cyprus	0.86	0.85	0.87	0.83	0.83	0.81
Russia	0.85	0.87	0.85	0.82	0.82	0.82
Japan	0.85	0.87	0.86	0.85	0.85	0.85
Spain	0.85	0.85	0.84	0.83	0.84	0.84
Malta	0.85	0.87	0.84	0.82	0.82	0.82
Turkey	0.84	0.8	0.83	0.73	0.73	0.72
Chile	0.84	0.83	0.82	0.81	0.81	0.8
Slovakia	0.84	0.83	0.84	0.83	0.82	0.82
Croatia	0.84	0.83	0.84	0.81	0.8	0.8
Montenegro	0.84	0.83	0.84	0.8	0.8	0.8
Liechtenstein	0.84	0.84	0.84	0.83	0.83	0.83
France	0.83	0.83	0.83	0.82	0.81	0.81
Hungary	0.83	0.82	0.83	0.82	0.82	0.82
Luxembourg	0.83	0.83	0.83	0.81	0.8	0.8
Italy	0.82	0.81	0.82	0.79	0.79	0.79
Kazakhstan	0.82	0.85	0.83	0.84	0.82	0.82
Bahrain	0.82	0.82	0.82	0.77	0.77	0.77
Tonga	0.82	0.82	0.82	0.78	0.77	0.77
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	0.82	0.77	0.82	0.68	0.68	0.68
Moldova	0.81	0.79	0.8	0.71	0.71	0.71
Saudi Arabia	0.8	0.82	0.8	0.79	0.79	0.78
Belarus	0.8	0.83	0.8	0.84	0.84	0.84
Portugal	0.79	0.79	0.78	0.77	0.76	0.76
Serbia	0.79	0.78	0.79	0.78	0.78	0.78
Uruguay	0.79	0.77	0.76	0.77	0.76	0.76
Barbados	0.79	0.77	0.79	0.78	0.77	0.77
Grenada	0.79	0.82	0.79	0.77	0.76	0.75
South Africa	0.78	0.76	0.74	0.72	0.72	0.72
Romania	0.78	0.77	0.78	0.77	0.76	0.76
Armenia	0.78	0.74	0.77	0.74	0.74	0.74
Trinidad and Tobago	0.78	0.79	0.78	0.73	0.73	0.73
Antigua and Barbuda	0.78	0.7	0.78	0.67	0.66	0.66
Bulgaria	0.77	0.77	0.77	0.78	0.78	0.79
Kyrgyzstan	0.76	0.75	0.75	0.73	0.72	0.72
Oman	0.76	0.8	0.76	0.72	0.72	0.73
Seychelles	0.76	0.73	0.74	0.73	0.71	0.72
Iran	0.75	0.76	0.75	0.76	0.75	0.75
Sri Lanka	0.75	0.75	0.74	0.75	0.74	0.74
Cuba	0.75	0.82	0.75	0.79	0.78	0.78
Bahamas	0.75	0.78	0.75	0.74	0.74	0.74
Ukraine	0.74	0.79	0.75	0.8	0.79	0.79
Peru	0.74	0.76	0.75	0.74	0.73	0.72
Bolivia	0.74	0.74	0.74	0.69	0.69	0.69
Turkmenistan	0.74	0.74	0.72	0.65	0.65	0.63
Costa Rica	0.74	0.75	0.74	0.73	0.72	0.72
Albania	0.74	0.78	0.75	0.75	0.74	0.75
Mauritius	0.74	0.77	0.74	0.74	0.73	0.73
Andorra	0.74	0.72	0.71	0.72	0.72	0.71
Thailand	0.73	0.73	0.73	0.68	0.68	0.67
Uzbekistan	0.73	0.74	0.73	0.73	0.73	0.72
Fiji	0.73	0.77	0.73	0.76	0.76	0.76
Malaysia	0.72	0.72	0.72	0.73	0.72	0.72
Panama	0.72	0.71	0.72	0.7	0.7	0.7
Mongolia	0.72	0.73	0.72	0.74	0.73	0.73
Bosnia and Herzegovina	0.72	0.73	0.72	0.71	0.71	0.71
Samoa	0.72	0.72	0.72	0.71	0.7	0.7
Brazil	0.71	0.7	0.71	0.69	0.69	0.69
Mexico	0.71	0.72	0.72	0.7	0.69	0.68
Ecuador	0.71	0.7	0.71	0.7	0.71	0.71
Azerbaijan	0.71	0.72	0.7	0.71	0.71	0.71
Qatar	0.71	0.68	0.71	0.66	0.65	0.66
Colombia	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.68	0.68	0.68
Venezuela	0.7	0.73	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.7
Jordan	0.7	0.64	0.7	0.67	0.66	0.66
Palestine	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.68	0.68	0.68
North Macedonia	0.7	0.72	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.7
China	0.69	0.65	0.69	0.66	0.86	0.79
Egypt	0.69	0.7	0.69	0.62	0.61	0.6
Brunei	0.69	0.7	0.69	0.7	0.7	0.7
San Marino	0.69	0.7	0.7
Tuvalu	0.69	0.61	0.66
Indonesia	0.68	0.67	0.67	0.65	0.64	0.64
Dominican Republic	0.68	0.71	0.7	0.67	0.66	0.66
Tajikistan	0.68	0.7	0.68	0.68	0.67	0.67
Paraguay	0.68	0.66	0.68	0.64	0.64	0.63
Kuwait	0.68	0.67	0.68	0.64	0.64	0.64
Dominica	0.68	0.64	0.68	0.63	0.63	0.63
Tunisia	0.67	0.67	0.67	0.66	0.66	0.65
Philippines	0.66	0.66	0.65	0.68	0.67	0.67
Algeria	0.66	0.68	0.66	0.67	0.67	0.67
Gabon	0.66	0.67	0.66	0.65	0.64	0.63
Botswana	0.66	0.69	0.67	0.68	0.67	0.66
Nauru	0.66		0.66
Vietnam	0.65		0.64
Libya	0.65	0.61	0.65	0.61	0.61	0.61
Jamaica	0.65	0.68	0.65	0.69	0.69	0.69
Guyana	0.65	0.63	0.65	0.6	0.6	0.6
Belize	0.64	0.65	0.66	0.69	0.69	0.69
Saint Lucia	0.64	0.64	0.64	0.67	0.67	0.68
Kiribati	0.63	0.59	0.63	0.59	0.59	0.59
Angola	0.62	0.52	0.53	0.5	0.5	0.5
Republic of the Congo	0.62	0.55	0.62	0.54	0.54	0.54
Lebanon	0.62	0.6	0.62	0.6	0.6	0.6
Morocco	0.61	0.59	0.59	0.57	0.56	0.55
Equatorial Guinea	0.61	0.47	0.37	0.47	0.44	0.44
Zimbabwe	0.6	0.63	0.6	0.59	0.57	0.57
Eswatini	0.6	0.57	0.36	0.56	0.55	0.55
Maldives	0.6	0.59	0.6	0.57	0.56	0.56
Cameroon	0.59	0.57	0.59	0.55	0.55	0.54
Nicaragua	0.59	0.59	0.59	0.57	0.57	0.57
Suriname	0.59	0.69	0.58	0.68	0.66	0.66
Micronesia	0.59		0.59
Bangladesh	0.58	0.59	0.58	0.53	0.52	0.51
India	0.57	0.55	0.54	0.56	0.55	0.56
Kenya	0.57	0.52	0.57	0.53	0.54	0.54
Iraq	0.57	0.6	0.57	0.56	0.55	0.54
El Salvador	0.57	0.59	0.61	0.56	0.55	0.56
Namibia	0.57	0.57	0.57	0.58	0.58	0.58
Timor Leste	0.57	0.53	0.57	0.51	0.5	0.5
Comoros	0.57	0.5	0.57	0.48	0.48	0.48
Vanuatu	0.57	0.56	0.57	0.56	0.55	0.54
Lesotho	0.56	0.53	0.56	0.53	0.53	0.53
Solomon Islands	0.56	0.48	0.48	0.47	0.47	0.47
Bhutan	0.56	0.54	0.56	0.5	0.49	0.49
Nigeria	0.55	0.52	0.53	0.5	0.49	0.48
Myanmar	0.55	0.52	0.55	0.46	0.46	0.45
Zambia	0.55	0.54	0.55	0.56	0.55	0.55
Togo	0.55	0.53	0.55	0.52	0.51	0.51
Sao Tome and Principe	0.55	0.58	0.55	0.57	0.57	0.56
Ghana	0.54	0.61	0.53	0.56	0.56	0.56
Uganda	0.53	0.47	0.53	0.52	0.52	0.51
Honduras	0.52	0.52	0.52	0.5	0.5	0.5
Cape Verde	0.52	0.56	0.52	0.56	0.57	0.56
DR Congo	0.51	0.51	0.51	0.5	0.49	0.49
Nepal	0.5	0.53	0.5	0.52	0.52	0.51
Cambodia	0.5	0.49	0.49	0.48	0.48	0.48
Haiti	0.5	0.46	0.5	0.46	0.45	0.45
Malawi	0.49	0.5	0.49	0.47	0.46	0.46
Guatemala	0.49	0.48	0.49	0.52	0.51	0.51
Rwanda	0.48	0.46	0.47	0.46	0.46	0.46
Laos	0.48	0.46	0.48	0.48	0.48	0.48
Papua New Guinea	0.47	0.45	0.47	0.44	0.43	0.43
Liberia	0.47	0.46	0.47	0.43	0.42	0.42
Tanzania	0.43	0.47	0.44	0.43	0.42	0.43
Mozambique	0.43	0.39	0.43	0.4	0.39	0.39
Ivory Coast	0.42	0.47	0.42	0.45	0.45	0.44
Guinea Bissau	0.42	0.41	0.41	0.41	0.4	0.4
Madagascar	0.41	0.45	0.41	0.49	0.49	0.49
Syria	0.4	0.43	0.4	0.42	0.42	0.42
Gambia	0.4	0.41	0.4	0.41	0.39	0.38
Benin	0.39	0.44	0.39	0.48	0.48	0.47
Burundi	0.39	0.4	0.39	0.42	0.41	0.42
Mauritania	0.39	0.42	0.38	0.4	0.39	0.39
Afghanistan	0.38	0.39	0.39	0.41	0.41	0.41
Pakistan	0.37	0.39	0.37	0.4	0.39	0.39
Sudan	0.37	0.35	0.37	0.34	0.34	0.34
Sierra Leone	0.37	0.42	0.37	0.41	0.4	0.4
Eritrea	0.37	0.39	0.89	0.27	0.27	0.27
Guinea	0.36	0.35	0.36	0.35	0.35	0.35
Senegal	0.35	0.35	0.35	0.34	0.36	0.35
South Sudan	0.35	0.34	0.35	0.31	0.31	0.31
Djibouti	0.35	0.34	0.35	0.33	0.32	0.32
Central African Republic	0.34	0.37	0.33	0.35	0.35	0.35
Yemen	0.31	0.36	0.31	0.36	0.35	0.34
Burkina Faso	0.3	0.32	0.32	0.31	0.3	0.3
Chad	0.3	0.31	0.3	0.29	0.29	0.29
Somalia	0.27
Mali	0.25	0.28	0.25	0.29	0.29	0.28
Niger	0.24	0.26	0.24	0.25	0.25	0.24
Ethiopia		0.38		0.34	0.34	0.33

Which country has the highest education index?

With an index of 1.01, Australia is the country with the highest education index.