Posted on 10/26/2013 7:41:09 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Which country has the largest stock of brilliant people? The answer to this question depends in part on raw brainpower, but also on the size of a country.
Exclusively for Business Insider, Dr. Jonathan Wai, a Duke University Talent Identification Program research scientist and psychologist, compiled a new ranking of countries based on scores on the 2009 PISA assessment, which tests reading, math, and science competency in 15-year-olds.
Multiple researchers have found that these tests, administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), are a good measure of "g," or general intelligence.
In our list, the rank order is based on two things. First, we identified the average percentage of teenagers in each country who achieved the top score of six on math or verbal tests (globally, around the 98th percentile). Second, we cross-referenced this percentage with population to estimate the number of brilliant people per country.
This provides a new way of looking at the raw brainpower of each country, not counting the significant effects of immigration and emigration.
If you looked only at average scores, you’d find the U.S. is only ranked 24th, near the middle of the pack. But if you then take into account the high-scoring right tail and population, the U.S. is not doing so bad.
Note that we're not including China on this list. Not every student in China was assessed, but only a few cities. And the result was that Shanghai in particular was a large outlier. Shanghai represents a tiny fraction of China's population, is a migration hub that attracts elites, and is much wealthier than the country as a whole. 84% of Shanghai's high school students go to college, while 24% do nationwide. d.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I haven’t read the article yet but I bet Texas is the country with the most brain power.
Now I’ll go check to see if I’m right.
Looks like Singapore is on top, percentage wise.
Is it accurate to test America’s 15 year olds, and then extrapolate from that?
America is a nation in a 2 generations old process of being colonized, isn’t there a good chance that it’s over 50 population might rate better than it’s 15 year olds?
I would much rather know what a nation’s average IQ is.
I do know that at one time the U.N. did a survey and the White population of Southern Rhodesia had the highest average.
It is the black population of Washington DC.
It must be. It has picked everyone else to the bone.
yeah but no
Singapore’s highest percentage tells me that if you’ve got intellectual potential, then go to school in Singapore.
Big shock, they’re all Euro/Asian except (technically) Brazil, and probably Turkey.
OTOH, this is silly. % is much more important than absolute numbers. Then no question almost always large populations will win.
Big surprise there, too, on general geographical regions....
And they're so smart that they don't live there any more.
Texas was probably 26 and the list didn’t go far enough?
“The Bell Curve” tolls again.
Funny thing is, like crime statistics, is that if you filter out two of the largest ethnic groups in America, then we rank right up there with the Nordic countries. Why do you suppose that is?
I thought China and India were supposed to have all these brilliant people from IIT and whatnot....
It is refreshing to see one of these “Top 25” things where they actual publish the list instead of making you click through 25 pages.
I'm moving to Switzerland (best gun laws) or N.Z.
(Both have good skiing).
so does intelligence and grades.
Uh, isn’t that list Racis’?
Any country that could produce a Detroit should be at the bottom of this type of list.
just sayin....
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