Which is the Smartest Country in the World?

The USA might have the most Nobel Prize winners and Germany may be able to claim Einstein as theirs, but how do average people perform when it comes to their numerical, verbal and logical cognitive abilities on a global scale?

With data from thousands of psychometric tests, we explored the geographical trends in countries across three core competencies.

Which is the smartest country in the world overall?

According to our psychometric test scores, Poland ranks number 1 overall (84%), followed closely by Belgium (83%) and Hong Kong (77%), across numerical, verbal and logical reasoning.

Most countries measured somewhere between 60–77%.

Rank	Country	Numerical	Verbal	Logical	Overall
1	Poland	85	74	92	84
2	Belgium	91	77	81	83
3	Hong Kong SAR	83	66	82	77
4	South Africa	83	62	72	72
5	Canada	86	50	73	70
6	Vietnam	78	60	67	69
7	India	71	61	73	68
8	United Kingdom	77	61	67	68
9	Norway	76	53	69	66
10	Switzerland	76	61	59	65
11	United Arab Emirates	76	51	69	65
12	Singapore	52	61	81	65
13	Germany	70	60	63	64
14	United States	62	52	71	62
15	Egypt	68	55	58	60
16	Russia	81	61	38	60
17	Brunei	81	40	50	57
18	Australia	51	46	74	57
19	Saudi Arabia	65	51	54	56
20	New Zealand	66	44	54	54

Which is the smartest country in the world in numerical reasoning?

Belgium has the smartest numerical thinkers (91%), closely followed by Canada (86%) and Poland (85%).

Which is the smartest country in the world in logical thinking?

Poland has the most logical thinkers in the world (92%), closely followed by Hong Kong (82%), Belgium (81%) and Singapore (81%). Most countries averaged a respectable 54–74% in logical reasoning.

Which is the smartest country in the world in verbal reasoning?

Belgium (77)% is the smartest country in verbal reasoning, followed by Poland (74%). Most countries scored an average score of between 51–61%.

Why are global cognitive skills important?

Strong cognitive skills ranked by country demonstrate trends to solve problems, remember tasks or make tricky decisions. Cognitive skills like thinking, reading, learning, retaining information, and listening are a very important part of the brain’s ability to process and think with reasoning.

High scores across all three cognitive skills (numerical, verbal and logical reasoning) is an indication of intelligence and strong intellect.

Numerical reasoning

Numerical reasoning provides insight into the population’s ability to analyze and interpret mathematical problems in the form of data, graphs or tables. Most numerical reasoning tests are timed, so it also is a demonstration of how well people cope under pressure when solving these types of challenges.

Logical reasoning

Logical reasoning is important because it measures a population’s general intelligence. The test usually involves answering questions about different patterns and sequences; you must determine the next pattern in the sequence under timed conditions.

Verbal reasoning

Verbal reasoning is an important global skill because it measures a population’s abilities like perception, vocabulary, understanding complicated questions, empathy and reasoning. This type of test will be multiple-choice, where you must read a passage of text and determine whether something stated is factual, inferred or not true at all.