As a whole, humanity is pretty smart.

We’ve been to space, discovered cures for previously deadly diseases, and invented incredible technologies.

Before you get too amped about yourself as a human though, just remember that we’ve also caused genocides, participated in internet challenges, Trump is president of the US and for some reason, the Kardashians are a thing.

Terrible social and political choices aside. Forbes points out, correctly, that the great works that actually advanced humankind didn’t happen in a vacuum.

Which people have contributed the most to our advancement as a species? Which does best at school, and which has the highest IQ. All important contributing factors when deciding where to visit next, no doubt. Luckily though, Vouchercloud has done the legwork for you and diligently researched and ranked the top 25 countries in the world by intelligence.

It quantifies intelligence to include the number of Nobel Prizes each nation has won to represent historic intelligence, the current average IQ and ‘education attainment’ to represent the potential intelligence of the next generation.

Let’s start with an overview:

Europe dominates the list, but Japan claims the top spot, due to high scores across all three metrics.

You’ll notice that most of the countries on the list are developed countries, which means access to resources beyond those available to developing countries like South Africa.

The US comes in an impressive fourth, although its ranking is flattered greatly by its extraordinary dominance in the Nobel category where at 368 prizes, it has nearly treble the UK in second place. However, in the current IQ the US comes a lowly 28th and school ranking a middling 13th – neither of which bodes well for its future ranking.

That explains a lot. Here are the Nobel Prize rankings, with the US in the lead.

The average IQ of a country provides interesting insight into how intelligence is grouped worldwide.

You’ll have to scroll down to seventh to step out of Asia on this list, with Finland the first Western country to make its mark. Go Asia! While the US doesn’t even make the top 25 for national IQ, it’s perhaps surprising to see Mongolia storming into 12th spot with an average IQ bang on 100.

The US doesn’t even feature on the list:

Finally, to predict the future intelligence of a country, it’s a good idea to look at the education system. Once again, Asia dominates:

I feel like if ‘street smarts’ and ‘innovation under pressure’ were categories, South Africa would come out on top.

For the full results, you can check out vouchercloud’s study here.

[source:forbes]