The rankings, based on health, education and survivability measures, assess the future productivity and earnings potential for citizens of 157 of the World Bank’s member nations, and ultimately those countries’ potential economic growth.
The findings show that "on average 56 percent of children born today will forego more than half their potential lifetime earnings because governments were not investing adequately to ensure their people are healthy, educated and ready for an evolving workplace," Reuters reported.
World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim was quoted as saying that "he hoped the new index would encourage governments to take steps aimed at moving up the rankings, much as they seek to with the bank’s popular 'Doing Business' survey, which ranks countries based on ease of doing business, with low-tax, low regulation economies faring better."
The bank’s "Human Capital Index" was unveiled at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings on the Indonesian island of Bali.
The HCI index measures the mortality rate for children under five, early childhood stunting rates due to malnutrition and other factors, and health outcomes based on the proportion of 15-year-olds who survive until age 60. It measures a country’s educational achievement based on the years of schooling a child can expect to obtain by age 18, combined with a country’s relative performance on international student achievement tests.
The maximum amount of the index is 1 and the minimum is zero. Singapore, measured by this index, tops the ranking with 0.88, and at the bottom are Chad (0.29), South Sudan (0.3) and Niger (0.32)
HCI index for Croatia 0.72
Croatia's total score, when it is measured by the Human Capital Index, is 0.72, and when it comes to countering the mortality rate for children, it has the maximum score of 1.