This is revealed in a recently published study: The World’s Most Literate Nations (WMLN). It’s the first study to analyze large-scale trends in literate behavior and literacy in more than 60 countries.

The research finds that the Nordic countries (Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway) are among the six most literate nations in the world, while Canada and the U.S. rank 10th and 11th respectively. Estonia holds the 12th place.

The study, conducted by John W. Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, CT., is used as a lens to view literate behaviors and their supporting resources - five categories such as size and number of libraries and newspaper readership.

According to Miller, Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway earn five of the top six slots in the study, largely because “their monolithic culture values reading.”

Miller and his team examined data for 200 countries, but due to lack of relevant statistics, only 61 made the cut.