From Data to Opportunity: Putting Human Capital in People’s Hands

Download the Report: Building Human Capital Where it MattersAcross low- and middle-income countries, deficits in nutrition, education, and employment are eroding human potential, costing them more than half their future lifetime earnings. 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.

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The Human Capital Index Plus (HCI+) was built to address this. It provides a clear, comparable measure of how investments in people translate into future productivity. It shows how much human capital a child born today can expect to accumulate from birth through working age, based on the health, education, and employment conditions in the country where they live.

For government and development partners, this matters. The HCI+ connects investments in people to productivity and earnings, helping countries see not only where gaps remain, but what those gaps may mean for jobs, growth, and long-term development. It helps users ask: where are the gaps, who is most affected, how does a country compare with peers at similar income levels, and what kinds of investments could help close those gaps? The app includes country profiles, gender-disaggregated scores, benchmarking tools, simulations, methodology documentation, and downloadable data, giving policymakers a practical toolkit to inform dialogue and decisions.

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At the World Bank Group Spring Meetings, the Human Capital Hub brought that potential to life. Visitors could look up a country's human capital score, compare it with regional or income-level peers, and see what is driving the gaps. They could explore how improvements in nutrition, schooling, employment, or labor force participation might affect future earnings. They could move, in a few minutes, from a broad development concern to a more specific conversation about people, productivity, and opportunity.

Live demonstrations, interactive data screens, QR cards, country comparisons and presentations, helped visitors explore the app for themselves. For some, the entry point was a country. For others, it was gender, jobs, education, health, or the question of why countries with similar income levels can have very different human capital outcomes. A country celebration showed another side of the story. It highlighted countries with strong performance for their income level: Jamaica, Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, Rwanda, Viet Nam.

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."