Nearly 150 years later, these huge educational differences persist. If we look only at persons aged twenty-five and older, as of the year 2000, the average American had completed 12.3 years of school and the average Canadian 12.1 years. In Argentina the average person had completed 8.8 years of schooling, in Chile and Peru 7.6, in Mexico 7.2, in Venezuela 6.6, in Ecuador 6.4, in Columbia 5.3, in Brazil 4.9, in Nicaragua 4.5, and in Guatemala 3.5. These Latin American rates are similar to Spain’s, where the average person has 7.3 years of schooling, while Portugal’s rate is 5.9 years.62
