Ireland has the highest educational attainment rate in the world, according to CBRE Research's Global Tech Talent Guidebook 2025, which was published in April.
52.4% of Ireland's population aged 25 - 64 have a Bachelor's degree or higher, the research found.
Ireland comfortably outranked second-ranked Switzerland (46.0%) and third-ranked Singapore (45.0%) in the rate of educational attainment ranking.
The UK was ranked fifth with a rate of 43.6%, while the US was ranked seventh with a rate of 40.3%.
Further down the list, Australia had a rate of 39.8%, while Canada had a rate of 36.9%
1.8 million people aged 25 - 64 in Ireland have a Bachelor's degree or higher, the report said.
The statistics were featured in the Guidebook's chapter on Labor Supply.
"Powerhouse and established markets have many similar characteristics and often compete with each other for tech talent and investment," the Guidebook says.
"The top tech markets have large and often diverse tech company clusters, along with higher concentrations of tech talent.
"These clusters typically form around preeminent universities that invest in technology innovation programs, provide a steady flow of new talent and foster commercial product development. These clusters accelerate the innovation process among tech companies.
"Education is a forward-looking metric and a key component of a market’s tech talent outlook. It is best analyzed through the number of degrees issued by higher education institutions and the caliber of those institutions."
Later in the chapter, the Guidebook notes that Ireland has six universities that are ranked in the US News & World Report's December 2024 list of the top 1,000 universities globally.
The six globally-ranked Irish universities are Trinity College Dublin (206th globally), University College Dublin (253rd), University College Cork (412th), Ollscoil na Gaillimhe-University of Galway (555th), Dublin City University (861st), and University of Limerick (942nd).
The US News & World Report's list additionally ranks the Royal College of Surgeons - Ireland 1,021st globally, and Maynooth University as 1,114th globally.
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