Breakdown : By country  |  By region

The 2017 ranking of the world top 100 universities places unsurprisingly the United States at the top with 48 universities, two less than in 2016. The United Kingdom, number 2, comes far behind with 9 universities. Number three is Australia with 6, followed by Switzerland's 5, and Canada, Germany and Netherlands with four each. The world best-in-class universities are dominantly located in the North American and European regions, the exceptions being Israel, Australia and Japan.

The hierarchy is reversed when considering the number of institutions per capita (in this instance, per million population, times 100). Under this criterion, the smaller countries put forward a proud performance, placing Switzerland, Denmark, and Sweden in this order at the top.

Switzerland achieves a per capita index of 59.5, about three times the median (15.9). The giant USA occupy a comparatively modest 10th rank out of 18, with a score of 14.53, marginally below the median and the average (red horizontal line in the chart). The picture is even less kind to the likes of Germany, France, Japan, Russia, and China that populate the lowest slots of the list, with scores well below the median and the average.

Sources: Institute of Higher Education, Shanghai and UN Population Division.

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