What’s New
A global, comparable evidence base.
The report introduces a uniquely comprehensive and internally consistent global data set covering energy, transportation, and digital infrastructure across nearly every country in the world. Assets are geolocated and, in many cases, disaggregated to the subnational level.
Two actionable diagnostic tools.
- Social Rate of Return (SRR): Measures the total economic value of additional infrastructure investment, including wider spillovers to growth and productivity.
- Infrastructure Efficiency Ratio (IER): Compares social returns to the cost of financing and maintaining infrastructure—indicating whether countries are under‑ or over‑invested.
Together, these tools allow governments to benchmark investment opportunities across sectors and countries using a common metric.
Key Messages
Infrastructure gaps remain large—and uneven.
Physical infrastructure stocks per capita rise with income, but major shortfalls persist in low‑ and middle‑income countries, often masked by national averages. Subnational data reveal stark geographic disparities within countries.
Returns are high—but vary by sector and context.
Transportation investments yield especially high returns in lower‑income countries where connectivity gaps remain severe, while energy investments deliver relatively stable returns across income levels, supporting both access expansion and quality upgrades. Digital infrastructure shows strong network effects, with higher returns where complementary systems are already in place.
Most countries are underinvesting from a social perspective.
In the vast majority of countries, efficiency ratios exceed one—meaning that the potential benefits of additional infrastructure investment outweigh current financing costs.
Spending more is not enough—spending better matters more.
Differences in outcomes are driven primarily by existing capital stocks and investment efficiency, not just borrowing costs. High construction costs, weak procurement, and market concentration are often remediable policy constraints.
- Balanced, multisector strategies outperform silos.
Infrastructure systems are complementary. Coordinated investment across energy, transport, and digital infrastructure consistently yields higher returns than single‑sector approaches.
Jobs and Growth: The Development Payoff
Infrastructure enables people to access jobs, firms to connect to markets, and economies to grow more productively. The report shows that:
- Returns to infrastructure investment translate into higher output, productivity, and employment, especially where service gaps are most pronounced.
- Well‑chosen investments can support structural transformation, trade integration, and urban agglomeration—key channels for sustained job creation.
- Prioritization matters as much as scale: targeted investments generate substantially higher growth dividends than untargeted expansion.
Policy Relevance
This report is designed as a practical decision‑support tool for:
- Governments facing fiscal constraints
- Development finance institutions prioritizing limited concessional resources
- Policy makers seeking to crowd in private investment
- Practitioners designing country strategies and sectoral programs
It helps answer:
- Where should the next infrastructure dollar go?
- Which sectors offer the highest returns in a given country context?
- How can policy reforms lower costs and unlock stalled investments?
Data as a Global Public Good
All underlying data, background papers, and reproducibility packages are made available through World Bank platforms, supporting transparency, replication, and continued policy dialogue.
