Korea ranks 2nd in World Bank's human capital index

Published : Oct 11, 2018 - 10:34 Updated : Oct 11, 2018 - 10:42

South Korea came in second in the World Bank Group's human capital index, which shows the productivity of the next generation of workers, the bank's report showed Thursday.

Singapore ranked first with its index standing at 0.88. South Korea and Japan tied for second with 0.84. Hong Kong, Finland, Ireland and Australia came next in that order, according to the report titled "World Development Report 2019: Changing Nature of Work."

The HCI measures the amount of human capital that a child born today can expect to attain by age 18, and is made up of five indicators -- the probability of survival to age of five, a child's expected years of schooling, harmonized test scores, adult survival rate and proportion of children who are not stunted.

Jim Yong Kim, president of World Bank Group. (Yonhap)

According to the World Bank Group, a child born in South Korea will enjoy a productivity rate of 84 percent, compared to what he or she could attain if provided with a complete education and good health. The comparable figure globally is 75 percent.

In South Korea, a child who starts school at age four can expect to complete 13.6 years of school by his or her 18th birthday, but factoring in what children actually learn, the expected years of schooling is 12.2 years.

Students in South Korea score 563 on a scale where 625 represents advanced attainment and 300 represents minimum attainment, the report showed.

Across South Korea, 100 out of 100 children born in South Korea survive to the age of five, and 94 percent of 15-year-olds will survive until the age of 60.

The report also showed that 2 out of 100 children are stunted in South Korea. In South Korea, the HCI numbers for girls are higher than for boys, the report showed.

Overall, between 2012 and 2017, the HCI value for South Korea increased from 0.79 to 0.84, and South Korea's HCI is higher than the average for its region and income group in 2017, the report showed. (Yonhap)