Countries by Human capital index plus (HCI+): overall score, female (scale 0”“325)

Ranking 2025

Analysis

The female HCI+ measures the combined contributions of health, education, and on-the-job learning to worker productivity for women. Per the source definition, the index calculates the contributions of health, education, and on-the-job learning to worker productivity, measuring the productivity of a child born today as a future worker relative to the benchmark of full health, complete education, and full employment in wage employment. Scores run on a scale of 0 to 325, with higher values indicating greater human capital. This ranking covers 170 countries, with 165 of those (97.1%) having data from the last seven years. All 170 datapoints are classified as official-quality data. The range runs from 40.85 to 268.88, a spread of 558.3%, and no extreme outliers were detected using a three-standard-deviation threshold.

The top of the ranking is dominated by northern and western European countries alongside a handful of high-income economies from other regions. Estonia (rank 1, 268.88), the Netherlands (rank 2, 268.00), Sweden (rank 3, 267.99), Iceland (rank 4, 267.81), and Australia (rank 5, 267.06) occupy the top five positions. Ireland (rank 6, 266.53), Finland (rank 7, 264.64), Norway (rank 8, 264.22), Switzerland (rank 9, 263.15), and Denmark (rank 10, 262.93) follow closely. Korea (rank 11, 262.07) is the highest-ranked East Asian economy in this metric. All top-ten countries score above 262, clustering within roughly 6 points of each other.

Notable patterns emerge in the middle and lower portions of the ranking. China ranks 47th with a score of 220.76, while India ranks 121st at 136.47, a gap of 84 points between two of the world's largest economies. Russia (rank 28, 250.47) scores comparably to France (rank 29, 249.20) and the United States (rank 30, 248.48). In the lower half, Pakistan ranks 159th at 97.76, while neighboring Iran ranks 101st at 154.07, a difference of over 56 points despite regional proximity. Iraq (rank 158, 98.43) and Afghanistan (rank 170, 40.85) anchor the bottom of the distribution, with Afghanistan's score less than one-sixth of Estonia's.

Several limitations apply to this metric. The index aggregates health, education, and on-the-job learning into a single score, which means weaknesses in one dimension can be offset by strengths in another without that trade-off being visible in the headline figure. The female-specific index depends on sex-disaggregated data, which may be less consistently available or more subject to reporting gaps in lower-income countries. Five of the 170 countries lack data from the last seven years, and while 92.9% of countries have data from the latest reference year (2025), the remaining 7.1% may rely on older observations. Comparisons between countries at very different income levels should also account for differences in how on-the-job learning and wage employment are measured and classified across national statistical systems.

Methodology

The metric is the Human Capital Index Plus (HCI+) overall score for females, drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators under indicator code HD_HCIP_OVRL_FE, with a reference data year of 2025. Per the source definition, the index calculates the contributions of health, education, and on-the-job learning to worker productivity, measuring the productivity of a child born today as a future worker relative to the benchmark of full health, complete education, and full employment in wage employment. Scores are expressed as absolute values on a scale of 0 to 325, where higher values indicate greater human capital. The ranking covers 170 countries, exceeding the 80-country coverage threshold. Of these, 165 (97.1%) have data from within the last seven years, and 158 (92.9%) have data from the latest reference year. All 170 datapoints are classified as official-quality, meeting the 70% minimum threshold. The score range is 40.85 to 268.88, a spread of 558.3%. No extreme outliers were identified using a three-standard-deviation rule, and average year-over-year volatility was 5.8%, well within the 50% threshold.

Sources

• World Bank