Most Americans think that they are smarter than the average American, while richer Americans are more likely than others to say that the country as a whole is unintelligent
A recent report ranked the US education system as 14th best in the world in 2014. The US came 20th in terms of educational attainment - as many Americans don't even graduate from high school - but it did very well when it came to cognitive skills. The US ranked 11th globally on this score, which is based on students' proficiency in reading, writing, maths and other subjects.
New research from YouGov America show that most Americans (55%) think that they are smarter than the average American - meaning that the average American thinks that they are smarter than the average American. A third of the country (34%) say that they are about as smart as the average person, while only 4% say that they are less intelligent than average Americans. People with higher levels of educational attainment say that they are smarter than most Americans, with fully 51% of people with post-graduate degrees saying that they are 'much more intelligent' than the average American.
When YouGov asked the same question to British people, slightly fewer (47%) said they were more intelligent than average compared to Americans. 43% of British people said they had about the same intelligence as the average person in Britain.
Asked whether Americans are intelligent or unintelligent, just under half the country (44%) says that Americans are averagely intelligent. Poorer Americans are much more likely to say that Americans are, on the whole, intelligent while richer Americans are far more likely to say that Americans are unintelligent.
Full poll results can be found here.
Image: Getty
