The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) runs several reports every year that provide an authoritative source of information in the state of education in the 35 countries members of the OECD and a number of partner countries; one of those reports ranks the “most educated” countries.

The OECD defined a country’s adult education level as “the percentage of people between the ages of 25 and 64 who have completed some kind of tertiary education in the form of a two-year degree, four-year degree or vocational program”.

According to the information evaluated by OECD, the country with the highest percentage of university population is Canada, with 56% of the adult population having a university degree or tertiary education.

When it comes to Latin America, only three countries made the OECD list and Costa Rica is the country that takes the first place in Latin America with the highest number of university population, an estimated 23% of Costa Ricans between the ages of 23 and 64 have completed a higher education. The other two Latin American counties listed are Colombia and Mexico.

“Costa Rica is recognized across Latin America for its leadership in education. As Costa Rica’s economy has developed in recent decades, the education system that helped propel the country to upper middle-income status now needs reform to respond to rising expectations and changing demands for skills”.