Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Canada Tops List of Most Science-Literate Countries

Posted by timothy on from the one-end-of-the-moose-has-more-gravity dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A recent survey of scientific education and attitudes showed the Canadian population to have the highest level of scientific literacy in the world, as well as the fewest reservations about the direction of scientific progress (full report). A key factor is a high level of scientific knowledge among the general population (despite comparatively low numbers of people employed in STEM fields). Another is a higher level of comfort with choosing rationality over religious belief — only 25% of Canadians surveyed agreed with the statement "We depend too much on science and not enough on faith", as opposed to 55% in the U.S. and 38% in the E.U.

I also wonder if the vaunted Canadian healthcare system plays a role. When advances in medical science are something you automatically expect to benefit from personally if you need them, they look a lot better than when you have to scramble just to cover your bills for what we have now."

5 of 221 comments (clear)

  1. Could have fooled me by RichMan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I am canadian, and if we are the most scientiically literate. I really pity the rest of you.

    1. Re:Could have fooled me by Beck_Neard · · Score: 5, Interesting

      As someone who is not Canadian but has lived in Canada... whoo boy, you have no idea. I'm not surprised by this article in the least. Now if only it weren't so cold...

      --
      A fool and his hard drive are soon parted.
  2. Those stupid Canadians! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    They think maple syrup grows on trees!

  3. Stephen Harper doing his best to change that by jblb · · Score: 5, Informative

    The current regime seems pretty anti-science though, unless it is directly related to increasing tar sands oil extraction efficiency? http://science.slashdot.org/st... http://news.slashdot.org/story...

  4. Re:Biased by radtea · · Score: 5, Informative

    The clincher for me - which indisputably shows the authors' bias - is that Canada ranks #1 in people protesting GMOs and nuclear power, and the authors consider this a good sign that their population is scientifically literate!

    The report says nothing of the kind. Did you read it? GMOs and nuclear power are mentioned as divisive issues, but there is no data on the ranking of people against them.

    The Globe and Mail article says, "Canadians also expressed the lowest level of reservation about science and its impacts. Compared with the U.S., Europe and Japan, far fewer Canadians said that they thought science is making our way of life change too fast."

    Sounds about right.

    Canadians are generally very aware that our lives would be miserable if it weren't for science and technology keeping us safe and warm and fed. We have our tree-hugging reactionaries, of course, but they have far less influence than you might think despite the vast amounts of noise (and I do mean "noise" in the information theoretic sense) they generate.

    --
    Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.