@coffee Would like to tackle more seriously your comment (moved the conversation on this corresponding thread).
Bragging or not might depend on the means with which we reached those figures.
France is a country with an old and strong authoritarian and illiberal culture.
This image illustrates the chronology of France’s history. It’s in French, but I think basically you can understand the idea: a succession of Kings, Emperors, and military Generals.
This informed the thought of many of our modern liberal philosophers (for instance Descartes and Condorcet), and so the form of our today’s modern state and ideology.
As a result, even today, this authoritarian culture is very vivid. Many French people sincerely believe that society problems can and must be solved top-down by one (bunch of) ruler(s).
The Anglo-saxon tradition is more liberal, and for that, more human, because it gives more room and trust to each individual’s natural development.
Reaching 30% by top-down authority (in particular the mandatory very centralized school system) is easier than reaching the same proportion in a more liberal, human way, and maybe it leads to many unintended consequences.