Americas Universities, Colleges, and Polytechnics

Overview

The Americas includes the continents of North America and South America as well as island countries off the coasts of these continents. Encompassing 35 countries and a total of 900 million people, the region represents about 13.5 percent of the world's population. The primary languages spoken in the region are Spanish, English, Portuguese and French.

Some of the largest economies in the world are located in the Americas including the United States, Brazil, Mexico and Canada which all have GDPs among the top 14 in the world. All but a few countries in the Americas offer a quality of life that is considered to be high or very high as determined by the United Nation's Human Development Index which considers life expectancy, education and per capita GDP.

The 35 countries in the Americas are members of the Organization of American States, which aims to promote democracy, peace, security, human rights and development among member countries. Two trade agreements are currently in existence with the North American Free Trade Agreement existing between Canada, the US and Mexico and the Latin American Free Trade Association which includes most of South America and Mexico.

Higher Education

The Americas are home to some of the most prestigious universities in the world with North America generally considered as having very high quality higher education overall. Central American and South American higher education is not generally as well respected but does include some very high quality institutions as well.

In North America, the top tier schools are in the US and include Harvard, Yale and MIT while Canadian schools that rank highly include McGill and the University of Toronto. In South America, the National Autonomous University of Mexico and Brazil's University of San Paulo typically rank in the top 300 schools in the world. The countries of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia and Mexico are considered to have the best higher education institutions in the region.

Resources

Organization of American States

Inter-American Organization for Higher Education