The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) confirms in its latest findings on education attainment that the developed world is getting brainier.
Across all OECD countries, high school (upper-secondary) graduation is the norm and the number of 25-34-year-olds with a college (tertiary) degree is nearing 40 percent.
The OECD research is based upon 2012 data and includes, in addition to its 34 member nations, results from Brazil, Russia, Argentina, China, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.
The biggest change is in post-secondary education. The data show that nearly one-third of all adults in the study held a college degree in 2012, a significant increase over 2000, when just 20 percent graduated from an institution of higher learning.
Russia leads all countries with nearly 54 percent of its adults 25-54 years of age holding college degrees. Canada is a close second with 53 percent. Other top countries with large numbers of college graduates are Japan (46.6 percent), Israel (46.4 percent) and the United States (43.1 percent).
China has the fewest number of college graduates, only 4 percent of the adult population.
Looking just at adults 25-34 years of age, Canada has the highest proportion of young adults with a college education, followed by Japan, Korea and Russia
The OECD reports that college graduation levels have increased considerably over the past 30 years. Nearly 210 million people within OECD countries now hold college diplomas.
Almost all OECD countries have high levels of high school graduation. Nearly three-fourths of adults 25-64 have achieved this level, and 82 percent of 25-34-year-olds have graduated from high school.
The study points out, though, that Brazil, China, Mexico, Portugal and Turkey are still struggling with high school graduation rates, with only half staying in school for a diploma.
Chile, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Portugal and Spain have seen secondary education attainment rates among younger people increase substantially over the older generation.
The OECD study says the most educated populations tend to be in countries where spending on education is the highest.