Canada ranks fifth of 56 member states at 70.2, but education and training scores 5.3
Canadian workers aged 15 to 24 recorded AI use at work of 10 percent, the lowest rate among the ten Commonwealth countries with a comparable figure.
The Ayre Index, a youth AI readiness ranking from the Ayre Think Tank, put Fiji highest at 49.3 percent and was released during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in St John’s, Antigua and Barbuda.
Canada placed fifth of the 56 member states with a score of 70.2 out of 100, according to the index, behind Singapore at 77.6, Malta at 75.0, Australia at 71.0, and the United Kingdom at 70.8.
Among surveyed young people in Canada, 37.7 percent used AI for their studies and 10 percent for work.
The study figure comes from OECD PISA 2025, covering pupils aged 15 who use AI chatbots for school work at least weekly, and the work figure from Statistics Canada’s measure of generative AI use at work in the previous 12 months.
Canada’s Meaningful access pillar scored 9.4 out of 10. Education and training provision scored 5.3, with the curriculum evidence the researchers selected recording computing in some schools or districts and the national teacher-policy indicator not explicitly mentioning AI, the country profile states.
Canada had usable values for 76 of the 102 scored indicators and a Data Gap Index score of 31.8 out of 100, where a higher score indicates more missing source evidence. Its youth population aged 15 to 29 is 8.0m within a population of 41.2m.
What the GDP figures measure
The Ayre Think Tank applied International Monetary Fund estimates of AI’s effect on the level of GDP after ten years to each member’s 2025 GDP in current US dollars.
Canada’s illustrative AI-related GDP gain is US$73.08bn under the middle of three scenarios, US$37.12bn under the conservative case and US$109.04bn under the optimistic case.
The white paper states that the figures depend only on a country’s GDP and its assigned IMF economic group, and that they are not guaranteed gains, annual additions to GDP or country-specific forecasts.
The 15 members at or above the study’s fixed readiness benchmark of 53 have a combined illustrative gain of US$389.2bn in the moderate scenario, against US$29.2bn across the 41 below it.
The United Kingdom accounts for approximately US$126bn of the higher figure.
Malawi ranked last at 26.3, with Lesotho at 27.8. World Bank figures cited in the index record electricity reaching 15.6 percent of Malawi’s population and youth internet use at 27.4 percent.
Rwanda’s recorded 4G network covers 98.8 percent of the population while 33.4 percent of young people report using the internet.
Approximately 90 percent of Nigerian respondents in the research examined expected to use AI for education or work within the following year, while Nigeria’s Digital, data, media and AI capability pillar scored 0.8 out of 10.
Calvin Ayre, founder of the think tank behind the index, said the changes AI brings will run through work, business, and wealth creation. Ayre said no one can afford to be complacent.
The white paper states that it is an independent publication and was not produced, sponsored or endorsed by the Commonwealth Secretariat or the organisers of the meeting.
