Canada maintains its standing as the most educated country in the world with 56.7% of Canadian adults having received a post-secondary degree. That's 10.3 percentage points higher than the U.S. and 19.8 percentage points higher than the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average. Rounding out the top three is Japan at 51.4% and Israel at 50.9%.
The rankings are based on adult education level, which the OECD measures as the percentage between the ages 25-64 who completed some kind of tertiary education in the form of a two-year, four-year degree or vocational program.
Related: 69% of Ontario adults possess a post-secondary education – a rate higher than any OECD country.
The nation's percentage of adults with a post-secondary education has risen 40% since 2000, reflecting the increasing value Canadians place on attainment of post-secondary and post-graduate levels of education. Canadians value education, and the Ontario government supports strengthening its colleges and universities.
Times Higher Education ranked nine Canadian universities among the top 200 universities worldwide. Four out of the nine Canadian universities ranked are in Ontario, including: Western University, McMaster University, University of Ottawa and the top ranked university in Canada, the University of Toronto, which is ranked 21st in the world. It's why more than 116,000 international students come to Ontario each year, and it's an important ingredient to supplying innovative companies across a variety of sectors with people who have the skills essential to keeping Ontario businesses competitive.
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