Question: Ranking universities, redux. In Exercise you read about the world's top universities, as ranked by the Institute of Higher Education. The table shows the geographical distribution of these universities by groups of 100. (Not all groups have exactly 100 because of ties in the rankings.) Do these institutions appear to be randomly distributed around the world, or does there appear to be an association between ranking and location?

Exercise: Ranking universities. In 2004 the Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai s Jiao Tong University evaluated the world's universities. Among their criteria were the size of the institution, the number of Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals won by faculty and alumni, and the faculty s research output. This ranking of the top 502 universities included 200 in North or Latin America, 209 in Europe, and 93 in the rest of the world (Asia/Pacific/ Africa). A closer examination of the top 100 showed 55 in the Americas, 37 in Europe, and 8 elsewhere. Is there anything unusual about the geographical distribution of the world's top 100 universities?