The World Population Review recently released a report on global IQ by country, which ranks Libya, the African country with the estimated highest average IQ at place 115. This means that African countries as a whole rank below much of the rest of the world to a significant extent.

IQ, or intelligence quotient, is a measure of cognitive ability used to predict academic achievement and job performance. Average IQ by country is a topic of much debate and discussion.

There likely are multiple reasons for the IQ discrepancy between Africa and the rest of the world. The relatively poor quality of education in African countries, for example, is thought to significantly affect IQ. Research published in the Journal of Psychological Science found an effect of education on cognitive abilities of approximately 1 to 5 IQ points for every additional year of education. The research also states that education appears to be the most consistent, robust, and durable method identified for raising intelligence.

African education faces many problems. For example, the region has the world’s worst education spending efficiency. According to a report released by the African Development Bank (AfDB), Africa has a 58% efficiency score for primary education and 41% efficiency for secondary education, both more than 20 percentage points lower than the second-worst performing region.

The causes of this lack of efficiency are mainly children repeating years (10 percent in primary and 13 percent in lower secondary, compared to 2 and 3 percent, respectively, for the rest of the world) and high dropout rates.

In half of the 24 countries of the West and Central African region, for example, one in every three children does not complete primary education. In Sub-Saharan Africa, close to 60% of youth aged 15 to 17 are not in school. This low participation rate negatively affects IQ and prevents children from achieving their potential.

Even in Africa’s more prosperous countries, many children do not attend school. In South Africa, for example, over 40% of students drop out before completing grade 12.

The African children who do attend school, don’t receive the same quality education children in other parts of the world receive. In many African countries the national curricula are outdated and do not measure up quality-wise.

Furthermore, a high student-teacher ratio means children receive insufficient amounts of attention to learn effectively. Out of the world’s ten countries with the highest teacher to student ratio, nine are located in Africa. As such, classes in many African countries have just one teacher per 40 students, and in the Central African Republic schools employ just one teacher per 83 students.

Besides problems in education, low average IQ scores in African countries can also be explained by the high prevalence of stressors that are capable of impairing learning ability. Malnutrition, for example, is known to stunt cognitive development. A shortage of basic necessities such as clean water, sanitation, and health care in many African countries is also thought to negatively affect IQ.

In addition, Africa being the continent with the most ongoing conflicts could also be a cause for the relatively low IQ scores of its population. Living in conflict affected areas causes mental stress which has been proven to result in lower IQ scores. A 2012 study found that children who had witnessed dead bodies or any type of explosion had lower IQ scores than those who didn’t.

Conflict also tends to disrupt education as lessons are often suspended during unstable security situations. Sometimes attacks target schools, with 278 of such attacks occurring in Africa in 2020 alone.

Lastly, we should consider that IQ is not the only measure of intelligence. There are many different types of intelligence, including emotional intelligence, social intelligence, and creative intelligence. It is possible that African cultures place a greater value on these other types of intelligence, and that people are encouraged to develop differently than in other parts of the world.

Nonetheless, improving the quality of education and ensuring that children grow up in safe environments will be of key importance. Africa has the world’s youngest population with an estimated 580 million children living on the continent. This is both an opportunity and a risk. Research found that for each one-point increase in a country’s average IQ, the per capita GDP was $229 higher. To realize future prosperous African societies, children should be provided with environments conducive to their cognitive development.