The document presents the rankings of the top 20 education systems in the world according to the World Top 20 Education Poll. The poll ranks countries based on their performance across 5 levels of education: early childhood enrollment, elementary test scores, middle school test scores, high school graduation rates, and college graduation rates. South Korea ranked #1 overall based on being #2 in elementary levels, #2 in middle school, and #6 in high school graduation rates. The top 5 countries were South Korea, Japan, Russia, Hong Kong, and China.

1. World’s Best Education
Systems in 2017
www.worldtop20.org
NJ MED’s 5th
Annual

2. The World Top 20 Education Poll provides annual international rankings of the top 20
education systems out of 209 nations.
The ranking system mission is to identify the nations that provide the best learning
environment for student’s 3 to 25. The poll also recognizes each nation’s top Government
leader.
How Each Country is Ranked:
Each country’s ranking is based on five educational levels: early-childhood enrollment
rates, Elementary Math, Science and Reading scores, Middle-School Math, Science and
Reading scores, High School Graduation rates, and College Graduation rates.
Each level consists of ranking the top 20 countries by giving a country 20 points for a first
place rank, 19 for a second place rank, and so on down to 1 point for a twenty rank. The
data is then used to produce the nation’s ranking from a combined score from all 5 levels.
The 2017 results are:

3. 1. SOUTH KOREA 81 PTS
Early- Childhood Enrollment: 11
Elementary Level: 2
Middle-School Level: 2
High School Graduation Rate: 6
College Graduation Rate: 3
South Korea President - Moon Jae-in

4. 2. JAPAN 74 pts
Early- Childhood Enrollment: 17
Elementary Level: 3
Middle-School Level: 4
High School Graduation Rate: 2
College Graduation Rate: 5
Japan Prime Minister – Shinzo Abe

5. 3. RUSSIA 62 PTS
Early- Childhood Enrollment: 20
Elementary Level: 6
Middle-School Level: 8
High School Graduation Rate: 3
College Graduation Rate: 6
Russia President - Vladimir Putin

6. 4. Hong Kong 59 PTS
Early- Childhood Enrollment: NR
Elementary Level: 4
Middle-School Level: 6
High School Graduation Rate: 13
College Graduation Rate: 2
Hong Kong Chief Executive – Carrie Lam

7. 5. CHINA 57 PTS
Early- Childhood Enrollment: NR
Elementary Level: 5
Middle-School Level: 3
High School Graduation Rate: 18
College Graduation Rate: 1
China President - Xi Jinping

8. 6. United Kingdom 57 PTS
Early- Childhood Enrollment: 1
Elementary Level: 9
Middle-School Level: 10
High School Graduation Rate: NR
College Graduation Rate: 7
United Kingdom Prime Minister – Theresa May

9. 7. SINGAPORE 55 PTS
Early- Childhood Enrollment: NR
Elementary Level: 1
Middle-School Level: 1
High School Graduation Rate: 12
College Graduation Rate: 15
Singapore Prime Minister – Lee Hsien Loong

10. 8. FINLAND 48 PTS
Early- Childhood Enrollment: NR
Elementary Level: 7
Middle-School Level: 7
High School Graduation Rate: 1
College Graduation Rate: NR
Finland President - Sauli Niinistö

11. 9. DENMARK 40 PTS
Early- Childhood Enrollment: 5
Elementary Level: 13
Middle-School Level: NR
High School Graduation Rate: 8
College Graduation Rate: 18
Denmark Prime Minister – Lars Løkke Rasmussen

12. 10. ISRAEL 38 PTS
Early- Childhood Enrollment: 3
Elementary Level: NR
Middle-School Level: 20
High School Graduation Rate: 7
College Graduation Rate: 16
Israel Prime Minister – Benjamin Netanyahu

13. 11. NETHERLANDS 35 PTS
Early- Childhood Enrollment: 14
Elementary Level: 18
Middle-School Level: 14
High School Graduation Rate: 5
College Graduation Rate: 19
Netherlands Prime Minister – Mark Rutte

14. 12. SLOVENIA 32 PTS
Early- Childhood Enrollment: 18
Elementary Level: 16
Middle-School Level: 9
High School Graduation Rate: 12
College Graduation Rate: NR
Slovenia President - Borut Pahor

15. 13. CANADA 30 PTS
Early- Childhood Enrollment: NR
Elementary Level: NR
Middle-School Level: 12
High School Graduation Rate: 17
College Graduation Rate: 4
Canada Prime Minister – Justin Trudeau

16. 14. IRELAND 28 PTS
Early- Childhood Enrollment: NR
Elementary Level: 11
Middle-School Level: 16
High School Graduation Rate: NR
College Graduation Rate: 8
Ireland President – Michael D. Higgins

17. 15. NORWAY 28 PTS
Early- Childhood Enrollment: 8
Elementary Level: 17
Middle-School Level: NR
High School Graduation Rate: NR
College Graduation Rate: 10
Norway Prime Minister – Erna Solberg

18. 16. USA 28 PTS
Early- Childhood Enrollment: NR
Elementary Level: 8
Middle-School Level: 13
High School Graduation Rate: NR
College Graduation Rate: 14
United States President – Donald Trump

19. 17. ESTONIA 26 PTS
Early- Childhood Enrollment: 15
Elementary Level: NR
Middle-School Level: 11
High School Graduation Rate: 11
College Graduation Rate: NR
Estonia - Prime Minister – Jüri Ratas

20. 18. NEW ZEALAND 25 PTS
Early- Childhood Enrollment: 13
Elementary Level: NR
Middle-School Level: NR
High School Graduation Rate: 4
College Graduation Rate: NR
New Zealand Prime Minister - Jacinda Ardern

21. 19. TAIWAN 24 PTS
Early- Childhood Enrollment: NR
Elementary Level: NR
Middle-School Level: 5
High School Graduation Rate: 14
College Graduation Rate: 20
Taiwan President - Tsai Ing-wen

22. 20. ITALY 22 PTS
Early- Childhood Enrollment: 10
Elementary Level: NR
Middle-School Level: NR
High School Graduation Rate: 10
College Graduation Rate: NR
Italy President -Sergio Mattarella