The West still keeps the top positions in the ranking of the world 100 best universities in physics in 2012. The United States come first with 46 slots, followed by the United Kingdom with 8, Germany with 7, Japan and Italy with 6 each. Overall, North America takes 51% and Europe 35% of the places.
The score per capita brings the small nations to the forefront. Switzerland comes first, followed by Israel, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands. The top two, Switzerland and Israel, have scores that are 4 and 3 times the median, and 3 and 2 times the average (red line).
World top 100 universities in Physics | |||
Country | Number | Population | Per capita |
| Million | (Nbr/Millionx100) | ||
| Australia | 3 | 21.8 | 13.8 |
| Canada | 5 | 34.3 | 14.6 |
| China | 1 | 1,366.6 | 0.1 |
| Denmark | 1 | 5.5 | 18.2 |
| Finland | 1 | 5.3 | 18.7 |
| France | 3 | 63.0 | 4.8 |
| Germany | 7 | 82.2 | 8.5 |
| Israel | 3 | 7.5 | 40.1 |
| Italy | 6 | 59.1 | 10.2 |
| Japan | 6 | 127.4 | 4.7 |
| Netherlands | 3 | 16.6 | 18.1 |
| Korea, Republic of | 1 | 48.9 | 2.0 |
| Spain | 1 | 45.5 | 2.2 |
| Sweden | 1 | 9.3 | 10.7 |
| Switzerland | 4 | 7.6 | 52.5 |
| United Kingdom | 8 | 62.0 | 12.9 |
| United States | 46 | 320.5 | 14.4 |
| Median | 3.0 | 12.9 | |
| Average | 5.9 | 14.5 | |
| ¹ Browse the complete List of 200 best physics universities. | |||
Sources: Institute of Higher Education, Shanghai and UN Population Division
