NationStates Jolt Archive

Does anyone know how the 'Smartest Citizens' rankings are calculated? Because I've found some slight, er.. discrepancies in the rankings and education spending on NSEconomy.

Let's compare my nation, Kanius (http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/target=display_nation/nation=kanius), (ranked 29 in the region) to the region's top nation, Whisperine (http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/target=display_nation/nation=whisperine). Using the numbers on NSEconomy I worked out that Kanius spends $859 (http://nseconomy.thirdgeek.com/nseconomy.php?nation=kanius) per citizen, whereas Whisperine only spends $141 (http://nseconomy.thirdgeek.com/nseconomy.php?nation=whisperine) per citizen. Are there some other major factors I'm missing, or is something really messed up here?

My advice is too Ignore it. In reality, your nation is only really as smart as you roleplay it to be.

First of all, the calculators make a few assumptions, including dollar amount. Therefore any attempts to go from calc to game is going to be flawed.

Secondly, "Smartest Citizens" involves more than just education spending.

You could be investing billions of money into education, but your citizens might not learn anything at all, because they might be lazy...etc(I'm just giving exampleas, no personal offense)

You may use all the money you have on education, collapsing your economy completely, and you'll end up being stupidest nation in NS. No pun intended :p