The Country Similarity Index attempts to quantify how similar countries are to each other relative to other countries. The index is a statistically-based way to measure this. 20% of the index is based on demographics. 20% of a country’s demographic score (4% of the overall Country Similarity Index score) is allocated for the average education and typical employment of its country’s people. The following is an explanation on how they were calculated:
Male Education
The United States, Germany, and Switzerland are the countries where males go to school the longest, averaging more than 13 years per person. In contrast, four predominately Muslim, Sub-Saharan African countries average the lowest number of years, with less than 3 years per male. In general, wealthier countries tend to have a higher average length of education. The Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan are some countries where males tend to go to school far longer than females.
The United Nations is the main source of the data:
http://hdr.undp.org/en/data#
Countries were categorized into the following groups by mean years of schooling:
.75-3.25, 3.25-5.75, 5.75-8.25, 8.25-10.75, 10.75-13.25, 13.25-15.75
Female Education
The United States, Germany, and Canada are the countries where females go to school the longest, averaging more than 13 years per person. In many African countries, the average female has less than 3 years of schooling. Like male education, wealthier countries tend to have a higher average length of education. In some countries, females get more years of school than males on average. Canada, Fiji, Qatar, Colombia, Lesotho, and Guyana all have more educated females than males.
The United Nations is the main source of the data:
http://hdr.undp.org/en/data#
Countries were categorized into the following groups by mean years of schooling:
1-3.5, 3.5-6, 6-8.5, 8.5-11, 11-13.5, 13.5-16
College Completion
South Korea, Singapore, the United States, and Ireland are the countries with the highest percentage of college educated people. Over 25% of their populations have graduated. All the countries with less than 0.5% of their people graduating from college are located in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of Guyana. Like average years of schooling, college completion is correlated with wealth. However, there are some fairly wealthy countries where less than 5% of their people have completed college, including Kuwait, Portugal, Argentina, and Uruguay. In contrast, Ukraine has a relatively low income per capita, but nearly 25% of their people have college educations.
Our World in Data is the main source of the data:
https://ourworldindata.org/tertiary-education#share-of-the-population-with-tertiary-education
Countries were categorized into the following groups by percentage of people with a college education:
0-6, 6-12, 12-18, 18-24, 24-30, 30-36
Literacy Rate
Nearly all the people in Europe, East Asia, and Australia are literate. With the exception of Haiti, Guyana, Jamaica, some Central American countries, countries in the Western Hemisphere have over 90% literacy. Africa and South Asia tend to have lower rates. The three most illiterate countries, Niger, Chad, and Guinea are all predominately Muslim countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The CIA Factbook is the main source of the data:
https://www.citypopulation.de/en/world/bymap/literacyrates/
Countries were categorized into the following groups by percentage of literate people:
0-32, 32-54, 54-72, 72-86, 86-96, 96-100
Male Employment
In the Persian Gulf states of Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Oman, over 90% of their males are working. A huge number of male immigrants have come to work on construction projects there, contributing to the high rate. Interesting enough, two extremely different countries, Moldova and Papua New Guinea, have less than 50% of their males working. Some African and Mediterranean countries also have low rates.
The World Bank is the main source of the data:
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.CACT.MA.ZS
Countries were categorized into the following groups by labor force participation percentage:
40-50, 50-60, 60-70, 70-80, 80-90, 90-100
Female Employment
Female labor force participation rates are generally lower than males, but there are exceptions. Several African countries have even higher rates for females than males. Muslim and especially Arab countries generally have lower rates of female employment, due to the patriarchal culture there. Yemen has by far the lowest, with only 6% of women there working. Of non-majority Muslim countries, India has the lowest rate with 20%.
The World Bank is the main source of the data:
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.CACT.FE.ZS
Countries were categorized into the following groups by labor force participation percentage:
0-15, 15-30, 30-45, 45-60, 60-75, 75-90
Occupation Type
There are three basic types of occupations: Agricultural, Industrial, and Service. Countries with high percentages of people farming are generally poor. Burundi is the only country in the world where over 90% of their people are farmers. Brunei is the only country with over 50% of its people working in industry, due to its economy being based on offshore oil drilling. Industry also includes manufacturing so East Asian countries like China, Japan, Vietnam, and Taiwan have high percentages. Countries dominated by the service sector are generally wealthier. Sweden, Bahamas, and Trinidad & Tobago all have over 85% of their people working in the service sector.
The CIA Factbook is the main source of the data:
https://www.indexmundi.com/factbook/fields/labor-force-by-occupation
Obviously there is no one clear way to determine how similar one country is to another. How would you quantify how similar one country is to another?
Please leave any thoughts in the comments section.
