人力资本指数加2026

INTRODUCTION There are vast differences in productivityacross countries. In 2023, GDP per hourworked in the 10 most productivecountries was more than 30 times GDPper hour worked in the 10 leastproductive countries. Given that up totwo-thirds of the income gaps observedacross countries can be accounted for byhuman capital, this divergence inproductivity likely has its origins in thehealth, skills, and work experiencepeople develop over their lives. Despitehuman capital’s importance, global not end with school but continues atwork, the HCI+ extends its focusbeyond age 18, measuring humangains—or losses—in three dimensionsthat are increasingly critical forproductivity and economic growth:higher education, young people’stransition to the labor market, andadult employment and learning at workup to the age of 65. The new indexreflects the combined contributions ofearly life health and nutrition, learning and investment. The new HumanCapital Index Plus (HCI+) measures theaverage human capital that a child borntoday can expect to accumulate overtheir working life, based on the risks tohealth, education, and employment that The HCI+ builds on the World Bank’soriginal Human Capital Index (HCI),which measured the amount of humancapital that a child born today couldexpect to attain by age 18, given therisks to health and education thatprevail in the country where they live(World Bank 2018, Kraay 2019). Like theHCI, the new index retains a focus onoutcomes rather than inputs, relies on arigorous and transparent aggregationmethodology, and offers a clear Addressing shortfalls in productivityrequires human capital metrics, whichcan serve as early warnings and direct This brief describes the constructionof the index and presents global andregional patterns in the HCI+, as well as The HCI+ introduces threeinnovations. First, in line with evidencethat human capital accumulation does THE HUMAN CAPITAL INDEX PLUS (HCI+) The HCI+ measures how effectively a country builds human capital, tracking the likelihood that childrentoday will grow into healthy, educated, and productive adults.It integrates measures from three dimensionsof human capital—health, education, and employment—into one index using evidence-based weights. The EMPLOYMENT EDUCATION HEALTH •Labor force participation(ages 20–24 and ages 25–64)•Share of labor force employed(ages 20–24 and ages 25–64)•Share of employed in wage •Expected years of schoolingcompleted betweenages5and 18 •Adult survival (ages 15–60)•Fraction of children notstunted (ages 0–5) THE HUMAN CAPITAL INDEX + differences—such as a 20- or 30-pointgap between countries or changes overtime—making it useful forunderstanding returns to policyreforms. A gap of 200 does not imply a200 percent increase in future earnings,as these improvements combine The HCI+ is the sum of three component scores for health, education,and employment. gap between countries is expected togenerate approximately 30 percenthigher future earnings in the higherscoring country over the long term if theconditions of today hold into the future,while a 10-point improvement over timerepresents a 10 percent increase infuture earning potential. Under the These component scores each have amaximum that represents the highestpossible score, respectively, for cases ofperfect health, complete educationwith the highest observed level oflearning, and maximum employment injobs conducive to skill development at An accompanying app and onlinetool present for each country a “best-in-class” benchmark, corresponding tothe top performers (75th percentile) Each point in the index correspondsto a one percent difference in expectedlifetime earnings potential, allowingimprovements in schooling, health, or This “1 point ≈ 1 percent” rule,however, applies only to moderate GLOBAL PATTERNS Human capital deficits are present in all countries, but there are large disparities. The HCI+ reveals large disparities inhuman capital across countries. Anempirical exercise that closes thegap between a country’s HCI+ scoreand the score of the “best-in-class”performer (countries at the 75thpercentile) with similar income(that is, within 20 percent of thecountry’s GDP per capita) revealslarge costs of these gaps in terms offorgone labor earnings in the future. The HCI+ increases with countryincome, but income alone does notaccount for the variation observedacross countries. Countries withsimilar income levels often achievevery different outcomes. Onaverage, countries operate roughly40 points below best-in-class For example, at the same incomelevel, Viet Nam’s human capital isfar higher than South Africa’s. Thegap between Viet Nam and SouthAfrica, 82 points, exceeds the gap DECOMPOSING DEFICITS Though they arecorrelated, eachcomponent of the HCI+picks up a differentdimension of humancapital. While countriesappear similar in the Education and employment account forthe most variation across countries. The education component of the HCI+shows the