- font-medium
- bg_blue_05
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- The Human Capital Index Plus (HCI+) shows how health, education, employment, and on-the-job learning shape future productivity and earnings.
- At the World Bank Group Spring Meetings, the Human Capital Hub gave visitors a hands-on way to explore country data, compare peers, and see where progress is possible.
- Income does not determine destiny. Countries such as Rwanda, Peru, Kenya, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Viet Nam are delivering human capital outcomes far above their income levels.
- lp-body-content
- first-letter
Across low- and middle-income countries,
. Half of women remain outside the workforce. One in five young people is neither in school nor in work, losing the formative years when skills are built and career paths take shape. Meanwhile, 7 in 10 workers receive no on-the-job training, depriving them of the continuous learning needed to advance their human capital. The window for action is now as 2 in 3 low- and middle-income countries are moving in the wrong direction on at least one key human capital dimension.
Policymakers face an additional challenge: the returns on investments in people often take years, sometimes decades, to materialize, which can weaken the incentives to act with urgency.
00:01 Children born today
00:02 will shape tomorrow.
00:05 They hold the world's greatest promise.
00:09 Fulfilling this promise requires investment.
00:14 Every child is born with a unique capacity to learn and thrive to shape their future
00:19 and the future of the country they live in.
00:23 External factors like healthcare quality,
00:26 access and learning,
00:27 and work opportunities are crucial
00:29 to whether this capacity is fully realized.
00:33 The World Bank's HCI plus measures what they achieve,
00:36 given the health,
00:37 education,
00:38 and work conditions in a country.
00:41 And what's lost when they do not.
00:44 HCI plus is a powerful tool for measuring how close countries are
00:49 to empowering every single child to live a full,
00:52 productive life
00:53 and for identifying where improvements are needed.
00:58 Human capital is the sum of people's knowledge,
01:00 skills,
01:01 health,
01:01 personal attributes,
01:03 and on the job learning acquired over a lifetime.
01:07 It drives productivity.
01:10 Innovation
01:12 And the creation of better lives.
01:16 The HCI Plus tracks education,
01:18 health and work experience across people's lifetimes.
01:23 It sheds light on what happens as investment in each of these
01:26 areas makes people more productive and helps create more and better jobs,
01:31 improving individual lives and strengthening national economies.
01:38 The Human Capital Index was introduced in 2018.
01:42 It focused on children and adolescents up to age 18.
01:46 The aim is to help countries assess their
01:48 progress in nurturing the next generation of workers.
01:53 But the acquisition of human capital doesn't stop when school years end.
01:58 Good health continues to contribute to productivity in adulthood,
02:02 and people continue to gain knowledge
02:04 and learn new skills on the job.
02:08 To align with this,
02:09 the Human Capital Index Plus has expanded the research lens.
02:14 It examines development beyond adolescence
02:17 into young adulthood
02:18 and through the working years.
02:21 To understand the power of the HCI Plus and its utility,
02:25 let's look at how it works.
02:28 HCI plus captures human capital formation in three pillars,
02:31 health and nutrition,
02:33 education,
02:33 and on the job learning.
02:35 For each of these pillars,
02:37 the HCI plus measures key indicators carefully selected
02:41 to reflect human capital accumulation in these areas
02:44 with established links to future productivity.
02:49 The scores for each pillar are added together to
02:51 produce a country's human capital index plus score.
02:56 This means that shortfalls in any area,
03:00 deficiencies in early nutrition
03:02 or access to schooling,
03:03 for example,
03:04 can hold back the scores.
03:07 Conversely,
03:07 even small improvements at one stage can add up to significant lifetime gains.
03:13 HCI + scores range between 0 and 325,
03:17 where higher scores mean that more human capital is being built.
03:21 A child born in a country with a score of 150
03:25 reflects its investments in health,
03:27 education,
03:28 and workforce participation.
03:31 With a theoretical maximum of 325,
03:34 there is opportunity for further improvement of 175 points.
03:38 Each 10 point increase,
03:40 achievable through targeted policy reforms,
03:43 translates to roughly 10% higher future earnings.
03:47 So why does the HCI plus matter?
03:50 It helps countries measure human potential across all life
03:53 stages and demonstrates how gains and gaps in health,
03:58 education,
03:58 and employment
03:59 compound for better or worse over time.
04:03 It makes the economic cost of lost potential visible.
04:07 Likewise,
04:08 the economic benefit of investing to develop it.
04:13 The HCI Plus app offers a practical,
04:15 hands-on way to analyze and compare human capital data in real time.
04:21 It empowers policymakers and partners to
04:24 transform information into effective action.
04:28 To make the important insights it provides easily accessible,
04:31 the HCI plus tool offers a practical,
04:34 hands-on way to analyze and compare human capital data in real time.
04:41 It has 3 main sections,
04:42 intro,
04:43 insights,
04:44 and dashboard.
04:46 The intro section provides a clear overview of its purpose and how it can be used.
04:51 It also serves as a guide,
04:53 ensuring that users can make the most of their experience.
04:57 At the heart of the tool is the insights section,
05:00 which offers rich visualization and analysis.
05:05 This section helps uncover trends and
05:07 inequalities that are not immediately obvious,
05:09 but can be vital to policymaking and investment decisions.
05:14 Finally,
05:15 the dashboard section lets users bring everything together in a personalized view
05:19 to tailor the tool to effectively meet their individual needs and objectives.
05:25 To see how this would work in real life,
05:27 let's explore what the HCI plus reveals for Bangladesh.
05:32 The user searches for Bangladesh on the app.
05:36 The insights dashboard displays Bangladesh's Human
05:39 Capital index plus score of 142.
05:42 With a theoretical maximum of 325,
05:45 there is opportunity for further improvement of 183 points.
05:51 Scatter plot display enables
05:53 users to understand how Bangladesh's score compares globally,
05:57 regionally,
05:58 and with aspirational peers.
06:01 In the dashboard view,
06:02 users can directly compare two countries,
06:05 in this case,
06:06 Bangladesh and the Philippines.
06:08 Using simple drop-down selectors at the top,
06:11 various chart types can be accessed using a horizontal control bar just below.
06:16 Users can also filter results by gender.
06:20 The HCI Plus app is a useful tool for policymakers and development partners
06:25 who need real-time evidence to highlight gaps in human capital
06:29 and compare outcomes across countries.
06:33 Easily accessible from desktop or mobile,
06:35 it enables officials and experts to bring data-driven
06:38 analysis to critically important decision making and advocacy.
06:43 We invite you to make use of the HCI
06:46 Plus app to identify opportunities to maximize human potential
06:50 and gain insights into how to make the most of them.
06:54 Let's nurture each new child,
06:56 invest in the health,
06:57 education and work opportunities of every person,
07:00 and unlock greater prosperity for all.
00:03 So we have data for 160 countries.
00:05 We're
00:06 showcasing a new tool.
00:08 What if Rwanda
00:09 increased school quality
00:11 by 10 points,
00:12 the human capital index plus.
00:15 How much would that increase economic growth?
00:18 What would Burkina's score be if it had the same level of affected years of schooling
00:24 as Uganda?
00:25 You can break down the gap health,
00:28 education,
00:28 and then employment.
00:29 This intervention alone could boost earnings potential by about 15%.
00:35 5 countries that we are going to recognize
00:38 are,
00:38 you can say,
00:39 OK,
00:39 what are the kinds of policies that would reduce stunting dramatically?
00:43 What have countries done?
00:44 Jamaica.
00:45 1 point is 1% higher future earnings.
00:48 Kenya,
00:49 congratulations on being one of our top improvers.
00:53 Future earnings
00:54 for a child born today could be improved by almost 24%.
00:59 The Kyrgyz Republic.
01:01 Rwanda is actually one of the highest performers for its level of GDP per capita.
01:06 Rwanda
01:07 and Vietnam.
01:12 Thank you very much.
01:13 Thank you.
01:14 It's also critical for economic growth.
01:17 If you look at the differences between
01:19 the poorest countries and the richest countries,
01:21 human capital alone can explain about 2/3 of the differences between
01:26 these countries.
Their progress took different forms. Kenya’s gains included a 16% reduction in stunting and significant advances in tertiary education. Rwanda improved health and on-the-job learning since 2010, while scoring above average in education. Viet Nam performed well on learning outcomes and saw large improvements in wage employment. The Kyrgyz Republic showed strong progress in education, including tertiary completion. Jamaica stood out for on-the-job learning and a 6 percentage points increase in tertiary completion over the past decade. Their achievements prove that smart, integrated policy matters more than resources alone. It highlights where human capital is built – in homes, in neighborhoods, and in workplaces.
Explore the Human Capital Index Plus (HCI+) to compare countries, identify gaps, run simulations, and see how investing in people can support jobs, growth, resilience, and opportunity.
The tool is mobile-friendly and can be added to your phone or tablet by tapping the "share" icon from your browser's URL bar and selecting “Add to Home Screen.”
RELATED
- lp-body-content
- first-letter