Countries With the Lowest Human Capital (PWT)

Every country with a figure for human capital (PWT), ranked from lowest to highest. The top three are Niger (1.26), Mozambique (1.29) and Burkina Faso (1.38). The middle country of the 145 has 2.86.

What this measures

Human capital index, from years of schooling (Penn World Table), in index (1 = no schooling). Source: Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen. For this measure, higher is better.

"Human capital" means the skills and knowledge workers bring to their jobs. This index measures it from schooling alone. It starts from how many years adults spent in school, then counts the early years for more than the later ones, following studies of how much higher pay tends to be with each extra year. A score of 1 means no schooling; the US is about 3.8. It uses the same schooling figures as mean years of schooling, so the two are close by construction. For that reason it is left out of the education score, which already counts years of schooling.

This measure mostly follows how rich a country is, so this ranking is close to a ranking by national income. Each country’s page also ranks it against countries with similar incomes, which is often the fairer comparison.

The full ranking

Each country’s latest figure, from 2023–2023. The year beside each value says when it was measured.

More on human capital (PWT)

• Countries With the Highest Human Capital (PWT)
• Human capital (PWT) by country: trend over time and what it goes with

Related rankings

• Countries With the Lowest PISA Maths
• Countries With the Lowest PISA Reading
• Countries With the Lowest PISA Science
• Countries With the Lowest Primary Completion
• Countries With the Lowest Expected Schooling
• Countries With the Lowest Mean Years of Schooling
• Countries With the Lowest Education Spending
• Countries With the Lowest Primary Enrollment

A ranking describes countries, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All country rankings.