Countries by Human capital index plus (HCI+): education pillar score, total (scale 0”“188)

Ranking 2025

Analysis

The HCI+ education pillar score aggregates human capital accumulated during formal schooling, including pre-school, primary, secondary, and tertiary schooling. The measure also captures learning quality through harmonized learning outcomes. Scores run on a scale of 0 to 188, where higher values indicate greater human capital accumulation through education. The dataset covers 181 countries, exceeding the 80-country coverage threshold, with 96.7 percent of data points from the last seven years and 100 percent classified as official data. The World Bank reports the indicator under code HD_HCIP_EDUC_TO. The full range spans 30.04 (Niger) to 179.37 (Singapore), a spread of 497 percent, and no extreme statistical outliers were detected.

The top of the ranking is concentrated in East Asia and Europe. Singapore (rank 1) scores 179.37, followed by Japan (rank 2, 172.47) and Korea, Rep. (rank 3, 170.79). Hong Kong SAR, China (rank 4, 162.48) and Ireland (rank 5, 162.42) round out the top five. Sweden (rank 6, 162.11), Australia (rank 7, 160.76), Poland (rank 8, 160.44), and the Netherlands (rank 9, 159.11) also score above 159. All top-ten countries score above 159, reflecting consistently high enrollment across all schooling levels and strong harmonized learning outcomes in these nations.

The middle of the ranking shows notable variation across regions. Poland (rank 8, 160.44) outscores several wealthier Western European nations, including Germany (rank 31, 148.05) and Italy (rank 41, 140.25). Turkiye (rank 28, 149.04) places ahead of Austria (rank 29, 148.20). In the lower half, Kenya (rank 83, 108.95) outranks Oman (rank 84, 108.81) and Qatar (rank 86, 108.08), two high-income Gulf states. At the bottom of the ranking, Afghanistan (rank 180, 30.55) and Niger (rank 181, 30.04) score below 31, while Mali (rank 179, 32.63) and Yemen (rank 178, 34.22) are only slightly higher, indicating severely limited educational attainment and learning quality across these countries.

Several limitations apply to this metric. The harmonized learning outcomes component depends on internationally comparable test data, which not all countries participate in equally, meaning some scores may rely on imputations or bridging estimates rather than direct observations. Countries with limited statistical capacity may have older underlying data; 6 of 181 countries have data older than seven years. The metric captures formal schooling only and does not account for informal or non-formal education. Scores reflect population-level aggregates and cannot reveal within-country inequality in educational access or quality. Comparisons between countries with very different school systems should be made with caution, as structural differences in how schooling is organized may affect how well the index captures actual human capital.

Methodology

The Human Capital Index Plus (HCI+) education pillar score is reported by the World Bank under indicator code HD_HCIP_EDUC_TO. As defined in the source note: the human capital index plus (HCI+) education pillar score aggregates human capital accumulated during formal schooling, including pre-school, primary, secondary, and tertiary schooling; the measure also captures learning quality through harmonized learning outcomes. Scores are expressed as absolute values on a scale of 0 to 188. This ranking covers 181 countries using data year 2025. Coverage meets the 80-country threshold, 96.7 percent of data points (175 of 181) are from the last seven years, and 100 percent of data points are classified as official. The observed range runs from 30.04 (Niger) to 179.37 (Singapore), a spread of 497 percent. No extreme outliers were identified using a 3-standard-deviation threshold. Average year-over-year change across the dataset is 5.9 percent, well below the 50 percent volatility threshold. No microstates under 1 million population are included in the 181-country sample.

Sources

• World Bank