Human capital – the knowledge, skills, and health that people see over their lives – is the main driver of sustainable growth and poverty reduction, and more human capital is associated with increasing people’s gains, rising incomes for countries, and stronger cohesion in societies.
Many hard-won human capital gains in many economies over the past decade are at risk of erosion due to the COVID- 19 epidemic; Urgent action is therefore needed to protect this progress, especially among the poor and vulnerable.
Designing and targeting the necessary interventions to achieve the highest level of efficiency and to overcome difficult trade-offs makes investing in better measurement of human capital more important than ever.
The Human Capital Index (HCI) is an international measure measuring the key components of human capital across economies, launched in 2018 as part of the World Bank-sponsored Human Capital Project and comprising 157 countries.
