Measuring human capital using global learning data

This database comes at a moment when a series of global efforts have been launched to measure and track learning on a global scale. Although recent modelling suggests that the world is on track to achieve the goal of universal primary enrolment by 2030, if learning continues to stagnate, this achievement will mean little. Accordingly, the Sustainable Development Goals include a focus on learning whereas the Millennium Development Goals focused largely on schooling. Another notable effort to measure and track learning on a global scale is the World Bank’s human capital index in which the levels of human capital of countries around the world are compared. This effort aims to report measures of human capital that will encourage countries to invest in education. The human capital index includes learning outcomes from this database as one of its core components. The database in this Article will be updated regularly and made public to enable these large-scale efforts and to advance our understanding of the formation of human capital in developing economies.