Immediately after you hear this, China and India must have come up in your mind with USA and Japan a distant 3rd and fourth. Well, it turns out that China doesn’t release its human resource statistics to the international community and India, well its officials statistics aren’t reliable at all as they fluctuate from state to federal level. So, apart from these two obvious winners, which of the countries are leading in engineering students? Here is the full list from the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) bureau of statistics:
Yes, we are as flabbergasted as you are. Russia isn’t one of the most thickly populated areas in the world, and it is neither leading in technology, but it does have the largest number of engineering graduates with almost double the number of the USA itself. I think I have finally found the answer to all those weird Russian DIY enthusiasts on Youtube!
Interestingly, Iran, the Middle East rival of the USA that had international sanctions enforced on it for more than a decade stands third. Most of the Iranian engineers will eventually be employed by the government entities to help with their nuclear ambitions. Japan and South Korea follow suit, and at least, theirs is justified since they are amongst the top in research and development. There are a few other surprises as well in the form of Ukraine and Vietnam.