Recruits of the Islamic State group are more educated and relatively wealthy than their average countryman, according to a study by the World Bank entitled "Economic and Social Inclusion to Prevent Violent Extremism."

"These individuals are far from being uneducated or illiterate," the report says. "Most claim to have attended secondary school and a large fraction have gone on to study at university."

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Disenfranchised members of ISIS leaked a cache of 22,000 documents last March, which included basic information of about 4,000 foreign recruits who joined the terrorist group from 2013 to 2014, the Guardian reported.

The study found that more than half (69%) of the ISIS recruits reportedly attained at least secondary level education, while "a large fraction have gone on to study at university." Furthermore, 15 percent left school before reaching high school, and less than 2 percent are illiterate.

The data obtained from the recruits were the compared with the general population aged between 20 and 35 years old in each region of origin, the Quartz reported. Researchers found that fighters pledging to the jihadist group from Middle East, North Africa, and South and East Asia are significantly more educated than the average population in their home countries.

The latest findings suggest that "poverty is not a driver of radicalization into violent extremism."

"We find that Daesh [Islamic State] did not recruit its foreign workforce among the poor and less educated, but rather the opposite. Instead, the lack of economic inclusion seems to explain the extent of radicalization into violent extremism," the report says.

"In countries with a large Muslim population, low degrees of religiosity, low levels of trust in religious institutions, and strong government and social control of religion seem to be risk factors of radicalization," it added.

The report further calls policy makers to increase job creation as part of their anti-terrorism strategy and target unemployment among the educated.

TagsISIS, Daesh, ISIS Recruits, Islamic State, Iraq, Middle East, jihadist, terrorism, extremist, World Bank