I'm not expecting the US to rise to the lofty levels of the Faeroe Islands, but it seems to me that you're grading on an excessively lenient curve here. Germany is the 19th most populous country in the world, and of the top 19, only 3 are bona fide first world countries (the US, Japan, and Germany) , and even one of the marginal candidates (Russia) is beating the US in tests.

And it's not like Portugal, Italy, Spain, or the Czech Republic are particularly small or particularly wealthy.