freebs2 on 28 August 2012
According to an "history of the economy" book I had to study some time ago, in the industrial age, the first country who had succesfully educated the vast majority of population, was Norway.
Edit:
This is from wiki: "In 1736 training in reading was made compulsory for all children, but was not effective until some years later. In 1827, Norway introduced the folkeskole, a primary school which became mandatory for 7 years[...]"
