Canadians more intelligent than Americans, but not smartest in world: Study
· Toronto Sun
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A new report on “global intelligence” has Canada 10th globally on a list of 80 countries, eight spots ahead of the United States but behind the U.K., New Zealand, South Korea and Japan.
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The report was published by TradingPlatforms , a financial website. It compiled data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISE) and a study from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that tested the skills and knowledge of 15-year-olds across the globe. It also looked at the per-capita publication of scientific journals, and the average IQ scores from the International IQ Test .
China was excluded from the study, which claimed results from that country “cannot be reliably compared to whole-country results elsewhere in this dataset.”
Canada: Better than OK
With all data compiled, Canada received a score of 59.36, ranking 10th in the world. Singapore tops the list with 87.13, with New Zealand (59.9) and the U.K. (60.6) coming slightly ahead of Canada.
The U.S. came 18th with a score of 53.88, and was behind Canada in every category. It’s still the world leader in the number of scientific papers published, but drops to 23rd when accounting for its vast population.
Canadian teens are efficient problem solvers, scientifically minded and digitally savvy, the study noted.
“ The teenagers performed particularly well in science, scoring 510 points, while mathematics and reading scores stood at 485 and 490, respectively,” the study noted. “Canada also scored 525 points in the new computational problem-solving assessment, which measures students’ ability to use digital tools to solve problems.”
But it did note Canada has a way to go.
“Canada is undoubtedly a scientific powerhouse, with its institutions producing 5,647 high-quality scientific publications in 2025, (but) while this remains a strong result, it falls well below the elite levels produced by Switzerland (507.12), Singapore (411.12) and Denmark (374.86),” the study said.
Per capita, Canada’s publication rate lags at 139.54.
Courting scientists
Canada has spent more than $500 million to attract researchers from across the world, particularly from top American institutions such as MIT and Harvard as U.S. President Donald Trump enacts federal funding cuts.
Analyst Diliana Hristova told the National Pos t poaching American brain power is a smart move on Canada’s part, yet it’s offset in part by losing experts in artificial intelligence and quantum computing to well-funded labs abroad.
“Recruiting 60-odd scientists will undoubtedly add firepower to Canada’s research base, but it does not solve the problem that created the talent gap in the first place. If Canada wants to compete at the highest level in science, it needs to make staying just as attractive as coming,” she said.