25 Metrics That Compare Education Around the World

Nelson Mandela once referred to education as “the most powerful weapon that you can use to change the world.” So, it’s no wonder that countries across the globe focus on schooling for their next generation. But what does education look like exactly for kids in different countries? What are they doing in their classrooms? How do they play? And how often?

Here are 25 metrics that look at the differences and similarities between children’s educational experiences around the world.

Let’s start at the beginning. Much research has been done about early childhood education, with some advocates supporting non-academic, i.e., play-based, education for children under seven years old. 

Around the world, the vast majority of children who attend school start at the ages of five or six. Countries with the latest starting ages for children in primary school include Finland, Poland, the Russian Federation, Estonia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Nambia and Mali. 

While it’s typically believed that the more schooling and homework you complete, the more likely you are to graduate, but Finland is proving that theory wrong. As previously mentioned, the country delays the starting age for school to seven years old, and most schools here incorporate an hour and 15 minutes of recess each day. Finnish high school students are given less than three hours of homework per week. Their schools require only a few exams or grades — save for one big standardized test they take at the age of 16. 

All this may sound like the Finns don’t take education seriously. And yet, Finnish students regularly earn top scores on science, reading and math in international tests. About 99 percent of students graduate from high school. And to top it all off, teaching in Finland is considered a highly respected profession on par with practicing medicine. 

If homework is not an area where your child excels, then hopefully you don’t live in Shanghai, Russia or Singapore, countries where students spend the most amount of time on homework per week. 

Averages include 13.8 hours weekly for students in Shanghai, 9.7 weekly homework hours for Russian teenagers and 9.4 hours weekly for Singaporean students, with other countries coming in at around six or seven hours. This data is based on the average time spent on homework for 15 year olds, as collected by the OECD.

No matter where you live, literacy is the backbone of education. Unsurprisingly, developed nations lead the world when it comes to literacy rates. Greenland tops the list, at 100 percent adult literacy. 

The U.S., Canada, Australia and most of Europe enjoy literacy rates at or close to 99 percent. China, a quickly developing country, doesn’t lag far behind, at 95 percent. African countries, particularly those in the central part of the continent that have seen the highest numbers of recent conflicts, hold the lowest literacy rates.