Today I came across a ranking of the 1000 best universities in the world at the site for the Center for the World University Ranking (CWUR). Their data is copyrighted, of course, so I did not copy anything. Their methodologies are well explained. When I reviewed the tables, it struck me that a large percentage of the very best universities was in the United States. For instance, you can see in one glance at the table that 15 out of the first 20 universities in the world are in the United States.
That got me interested in analyzing the numbers further. When I counted all 1000 and ranked them, I came up with 60 countries. I listed them in order of number of appearances in the chart below.
As you can see, out of 1000 of the best universities in the world, 229 are in the United States, 84 are in China, 74 in Japan, and so forth.
Please scroll down below this chart now.
| Top 1000 |
Count |
| USA |
229 |
| China |
84 |
| Japan |
74 |
| United Kingdom |
64 |
| Germany |
55 |
| France |
50 |
| Italy |
47 |
| Spain |
41 |
| South Korea |
34 |
| Canada |
32 |
| Australia |
27 |
| Taiwan |
25 |
| Brazil |
18 |
| India |
15 |
| Netherlands |
13 |
| Austria |
12 |
| Sweden |
11 |
| Belgium |
10 |
| Turkey |
10 |
| Finland |
9 |
| Poland |
9 |
| Switzerland |
9 |
| Iran |
8 |
| Ireland |
8 |
| Greece |
7 |
| Israel |
7 |
| Portugal |
7 |
| Hong Kong |
6 |
| Hungary |
6 |
| New Zealand |
6 |
| Czech Republic |
5 |
| Denmark |
5 |
| Norway |
5 |
| South Africa |
5 |
| Argentina |
4 |
| Chile |
4 |
| Egypt |
4 |
| Saudi Arabia |
4 |
| Malaysia |
3 |
| Russia |
3 |
| Thailand |
3 |
| Colombia |
2 |
| Mexico |
2 |
| Singapore |
2 |
| Slovenia |
2 |
| Bulgaria |
1 |
| Croatia |
1 |
| Cyprus |
1 |
| Estonia |
1 |
| Iceland |
1 |
| Lebanon |
1 |
| Lithuania |
1 |
| Puerto Rico |
1 |
| Romania |
1 |
| Serbia |
1 |
| Slovak Republic |
1 |
| Uganda |
1 |
| United Arab Emirates |
1 |
| Uruguay |
1 |
When I put this data in a chart format, it looks like this:
Of course, since 15 of the top 20 universities are in the United States, there are indications that the U.S. is heavier at the top, and just counting numbers does not do it justice.
So I counted the top 100 only and came up with this table:
| Country |
Count |
| USA |
53 |
| Japan |
8 |
| United Kingdom |
7 |
| Switzerland |
4 |
| Canada |
4 |
| France |
4 |
| Germany |
4 |
| Israel |
3 |
| China |
2 |
| Sweden |
2 |
| Netherlands |
2 |
| South Korea |
1 |
| Russia |
1 |
| Taiwan |
1 |
| Singapore |
1 |
| Denmark |
1 |
| Italy |
1 |
| Belgium |
1 |
Over half of all the universities in the top 100 in the world are in the United States.
And here is the chart for that:
I was actually surprised how low Germany scored in this. Looking back in the original table, sorted in rank order, the first time Germany shows up is in slot 82.
I have often criticized the educational system of the United States. Mostly I referred to our elementary and secondary schools. Clearly, we still have, by far, the best university system in the world. We are head and shoulders above everyone else. It is no wonder that so many foreign students come to the United States for their education.
This is a very critical edge that is vital to our social and economic welfare and health. Our university system keeps us competitive and energized. We should be proud of it.
Now, if our American students could only afford to go to college!