Countries With The MOST College Graduates (PHOTOS)

According to a new report from the College Board (.pdf), Russia is the world leader when it comes to graduating its citizens from college.

Fifty-four percent of the Russian Federation's population aged 25 to 64 has an associate's degree or higher, data from the Organisation for Economic and Co-operative Development reveals. Canada trails Russia in second place with 48.3 percent.

The board's comprehensive report also looks at the percentage of college graduates in the 25 to 34-year-old age bracket in countries around the world. The U.S., formerly the world leader in this category, this year fell to 12th place, with 40.4 percent of its young adults holding associate's degrees or higher.

See where the U.S. ranked among other top countries across all age groups below. Are you surprised?

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Russian Federation: 54%

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Comments

[paleoimage]

02:52 PM on 08/07/2010

All education in Russia is offered for free. As long as you complete a full load coursework, continuously, with acceptable grades you can go all the way up to a doctorate without incurring any debt.
With university costs skyrocketing in the USA our overall graduation rates will continue to slide as obtaining a higher education becomes prohibitive except for the wealthy (or a handful of the most exceptional students, artists and athletes)

[Darkstorn]

02:45 PM on 07/27/2010

Wow, France and Germany aren't even on that list. I always thought of them as being some of the more educated nations in the Western world.

[Nofuzzydreams]

04:16 PM on 07/29/2010

You have been fed the standard liberal BS or America is uneducated!!

[maurage]

08:24 PM on 07/25/2010

I saw recently on PBS-Frontline College Inc. in which Jack Welsh, of GE fame, was trying very hard to explain the huge benefits of for-profit college for the students and the US economy as a whole. In order to achieve that aim, a few preconditions would have to be met:
1- no regulation whatsover regarding minimum standards for accredidations of the colleges,
2- extension of the federal guaranties on loans to students and ending those cumbersome rules regarding terms of the loans, penalties an interest rates,
3- maintain and extensions of the bankrupcy rules making the discharge of student loans in the event of bankrupcy.
It seems to me that this would be perfect market solution for the rebirth of serfdom through indebtedness in the 21 century.

[kristaS]

11:25 AM on 07/23/2010

"Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.

He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way."

Religion of Bokonon

[kristaS]

08:59 AM on 07/23/2010

You will notice that only people who complain that college education did not get them a job are the ones who have majors in unmarketable skills. Do some research about the major "before" you enroll NOT after graduating. maroons!

[carester]

04:35 PM on 07/23/2010

Amen :0)

[supergenius02]

02:31 AM on 07/23/2010

The U.S. is dropping in rank because of the ridiculous price gouging by colleges and universities in this nation. I was talking to a dental school student who says he is paying $50,000 a year. Seriously, who wants to take on that type of debt? A college education is so expensive it actually makes sense to just get an AA degree from a community college and skip the bachelors degree altogether when you factor in the opportunity cost for staying in college instead of working and student loan debt and associaed interst. The libs keep feeding the machine by throwing more grants and loans to actually help the universities keep raising tuition several times the rate of inflation every year. We always hear about oil price gouging but nothing on colleges. It's shameful.

[pablogalante]

09:32 PM on 07/22/2010

I just got out of one of these study abroad programs and it was fun and all - but expensive and didnt really help me to much

I went to this site which says why u should study abroad http://www.studyabroaduniversity.com/whystudyabroad.html

overall its okay but a ton of money -- you will meet cool people etc

[blackjack12]

09:19 PM on 07/22/2010

All Israeli teens have compulsorily army duty, how heck do they have time to study, not including the tension in the region,how the heck did they come in third.

[mjeffn]

10:27 PM on 07/22/2010

more focused

[Occam123]

02:09 AM on 07/23/2010

Israel is a socialist country. Hence there's a serious dedication of country's resource towards education. It is a country where educators are highly respected. Just as in Europe and in Confucian influenced countries. regardless, Jews through out history had a relentless dedication to learning. In the earlier days it was mostly relgious and philosophical. Now it s in all fields of inquiry.

[GeoTor]

07:44 PM on 07/22/2010

Wow. I'm surprised about Canada's ranking ! I'm from Canada, and I knew it would be higher, but not that high !!! Also, Russia ... that's really high !!! When do they have time to study when they're always drunk ?!?

[Occam123]

11:12 PM on 07/22/2010

When you have time to study when your arse is always frozen to the hockey rink seat?

[ccelli73]

05:49 PM on 07/26/2010

Just because their former leader was a drunk doesn't mean all Russians are drunks. lol Obviously they're doing something better than us. We Americans need to catch up!

[persimmon8]

06:22 PM on 07/22/2010

It is unfortunate that education in the world today is tending to be reduced to a propaganda industry that is purposed to produce the next generation on a programmed life dictated by governments, corporations and economic interests.

What could we create if we went beyond this paradigm?...perhaps create a sustainable, cooperative,and benign circumstance where humans have the space and time to contemplate the process of getting to the root of what human existence is really about...

[Behind the Tweed Curtain]

02:43 AM on 07/24/2010

What is your objection to education? In what way is it a propaganda industry? How do you expect an uneducated, ignorant society to be creative? Getting to the root of what human existence is all about is the stock in trade of many, many academics.

[persimmon8]

10:01 AM on 07/24/2010

Hi Tweed...I do not object to education...I personally have been involved with studying the great wisdom traditions for the past ten years and feel that much of what is taught in higher learning is propagandized stuff from corporate industries and just about being a worker in this almost insane circumstance at this point in time...from Wall St to the defense industry, corporate healthcare and on. We need a new paradigm and with it a new system of education to teach how to live sustainably in cooperation,tolerance, and peace. People need more freedom than merely fitting into this robotized existence....and more freedom to contemplate the higher sensibilities. I applaud the academics that do this but there are far and few.

[deepthicket]

05:53 PM on 07/22/2010

Why count AA degrees? They don't count for anything anywhere else, so why credit them in this comparison?

[Steven Travis]

07:38 PM on 07/22/2010

Because if it wasn't for the AA's we probably wouldn't look as good.

[kristaS]

09:00 AM on 07/23/2010

LOL

[JCDexter]

10:13 PM on 07/22/2010

OECD only counts vocational associate degrees--'academic' associates (e.g., A.A., A.S.) don't count.

[martiniandabotoxchaser]

05:27 PM on 07/22/2010

The high percentage of Americans with college degrees may account for our growing unemployment problem. An increasing number of Americans are college educated but there is only so much room at the top. Seventy five percent of graduates from this last graduating class can't find work....they don't want to do "shovel ready" jobs...they want to use their expensive education and go after the American dream. As Bernanke said yesterday we have just too many people, too high a birthrate, and too high an immigration rate... even if our economy starts to grow it may be 20 years before opportunities catch up with people. Parents and children do not sacrifice so children can grow up to do physical labor.....we need to create jobs...jobs that require higher education...if we are not going to do this we should stop offering a college education to such a high percentage of our population...we should go to a system where fewer spots are offered and the competition to get in is higher....

[Occam123]

02:19 AM on 07/23/2010

"The high percentage of Americans with college degrees may account for our growing unemployment problem."
This is an irrational statement. Many European countries with high % of degrees have relatively low unemployment rates.

[martiniandabotoxchaser]

11:49 AM on 07/23/2010

Are you kidding...Europe is have huge issues with unemployment. Europe tends to have lower college education rates because getting into college is much, much more competitive. Beginning early in schools, students who do not make a certain score are weeded out and placed in vocational programs. We have taken a very different strategy. We have made it the goal to have all students receive a college education. But we cannot have a society of all leaders and managers...someone has to have vocational skills if we are every to manufacture anything....perhaps we need to be like Europe and try to guide those who should not be in college into careers that more closely match their skills.

[Nofuzzydreams]

04:21 PM on 07/29/2010

Which ones? I didn't see France, UK or Germany or Italy on the list. They weed out the non-performers early and are much more elitist in offering college education. Liberals tend to have a different impression about education levels because they think liberal thinking of most of the population in Europe equates to better education. It isn't so.

[kristaS]

09:03 AM on 07/23/2010

The unemplyment is because the degrees Americans obtain have no marketable skills. An AA or BA in music, art or theatre will not get you a job becasue those markets employ people based on talent not degrees. Duh!

[martiniandabotoxchaser]

11:42 AM on 07/23/2010

You can tell that to all the unemployed engineering, economics, and science majors....

[apoyo]

05:15 PM on 07/22/2010

Maybe the US would be first if colleges weren't such vultures and banks weren't such blood suckers when it comes to financial aid to pay for the exorbitant price of an education.

[martiniandabotoxchaser]

05:28 PM on 07/22/2010

And what would we do with that education as there is already a mismatch with jobs.

[apoyo]

05:52 PM on 07/22/2010

Sorry, in that case let's do away with the whole education system. We wouldn't want to overload our fragile environment with educated people.

[kristaS]

09:05 AM on 07/23/2010

fanned. Amazingly simple concept that no one can grasp.
Match your major to the job market and you WILL have a job after graduation!

[marignymitch]

04:38 PM on 07/22/2010

USA makes top 10! (In coaches with AA 'degrees'.)

[kristaS]

09:05 AM on 07/23/2010

LOL

[maurage]

07:27 PM on 07/25/2010

Alleluya Alleluya USA!! USA!! USA!!- made it in top ten

[Kahill]

04:32 PM on 07/22/2010

Highest percentage versus most! Still it’s good to see US has not slipped much in that category. But in a globally competitive environment, most college graduates will matter. Would like HuffPo to correct its headline, or also post those statistics!