About GEFRI

What is GEFRI?

The Global Education Futures Readiness Index (GEFRI) is an open, interactive tool for exploring and understanding how prepared countries are to meet the challenges and opportunities of education in a rapidly changing world.

GEFRI enables users to compare countries across multiple dimensions (innovation, infrastructure, equity, human capital, and governance) using the latest available data. Rather than prescribing rankings or solutions, GEFRI encourages discovery, comparison, and reflection on what readiness means for different contexts. It is designed to help policymakers, educators, researchers, and advocates explore patterns, identify strengths and gaps, and spark new conversations about the future of education worldwide.

What does a GEFRI Score for a country mean?

The GEFRI Score is a composite indicator ranging from 0 to 100, summarizing a country’s overall readiness for the future of education across five key dimensions: innovation, infrastructure, human capital, governance, and equity. Higher scores reflect greater system-wide preparedness for navigating the challenges and opportunities of education in a changing world.

• Scores above 75: Indicate leading or high-performing systems. These countries are at the forefront of readiness globally, with strong foundations and broad capacity for future adaptation, but may still face critical challenges in some areas.
• Scores between 60–75: Reflect strong or moderately strong readiness, often combining significant progress in some areas with ongoing gaps or weaknesses in others.
• Scores between 40–60: Signal emerging or partial readiness. Countries in this range may be making important advances but continue to face persistent structural or systemic barriers.
• Scores below 40: Highlight systems with low readiness, facing substantial challenges or barriers that limit future potential.

Important: The GEFRI Score provides a broad, comparative benchmark rather than an absolute judgment of quality. Most countries fall within the middle ranges, reflecting the reality that education systems globally are still evolving. Top scores do not mean perfection, and lower scores may mask recent reforms or local successes. For meaningful interpretation, always review a country’s individual dimension scores, confidence ratings, and contextual notes in each profile.

Component indicators

GEFRI profiles countries across five dimensions that matter most for education futures. Each indicator is chosen for its value in capturing systems-level readiness, capacity for change, and potential for equitable, future-oriented outcomes:

• Innovation: Measures national investment in research and development (R&D), the presence of researchers, scientific and technical publishing, and high-tech exports. High scores reflect an education system’s ability to foster new knowledge, support creative problem-solving, and participate in the global innovation economy. These indicators are important for understanding how well a country can adapt to future challenges, drive technological progress, and translate research into meaningful educational advances.
• Infrastructure: Tracks access to electricity, internet connectivity, secure digital services, and mobile communication. These foundational elements enable both traditional and digital learning, especially in an era of rapid technological change. Robust infrastructure is critical for closing the digital divide, ensuring universal access to quality education, and supporting blended, online, and remote learning opportunities for all.
• Human Capital: Focuses on government investment in education, literacy rates, and participation in secondary and tertiary schooling. Human capital indicators show how well a country is equipping its people with the knowledge, skills, and credentials needed for personal, social, and economic development. Strong human capital is vital for supporting lifelong learning, workforce adaptability, and the capacity to thrive in uncertain futures.
• Governance: Assesses the effectiveness of public institutions, regulatory quality, control of corruption, and voice and accountability. Good governance ensures that education systems are responsive, transparent, and accountable to stakeholders. These indicators are critical for maintaining public trust, driving reform, and creating the enabling environment necessary for sustainable, future-ready education.
• Equity in Access and Gender Parity: Evaluates the extent to which education is accessible and inclusive, with a focus on gender parity and out-of-school rates. Equitable education systems unlock the potential of all learners, regardless of gender or background, and foster social cohesion and justice. By tracking disparities, GEFRI highlights where barriers remain and where progress is being made toward the goal of education for all.

GEFRI relies on open, regularly-updated global indicators, with primary data sources including the World Bank and other major international agencies. Methodology, imputation strategies, and technical documentation are available on our methodology page.

How does GEFRI work?

GEFRI brings together internationally recognized indicators of educational infrastructure, human capital, innovation, governance, and equity. It aggregates and analyzes open data from trusted sources, primarily the World Bank, to create a multidimensional readiness profile for each country. The methodology emphasizes:

• Comparability: Scores are normalized, allowing for fair cross-country comparison.
• Transparency: All indicators, calculation steps, and imputation strategies are openly documented.
• Inclusivity: Where data is missing, careful imputation ensures every country receives a score, with imputed data clearly flagged.
• Actionability: Profiles highlight each country’s strengths, weaknesses, and data gaps, enabling targeted improvements.

GEFRI is continually updated as new data becomes available and methods improve.

Who is GEFRI for?

GEFRI is built as a resource for:

• Policymakers seeking to benchmark progress and guide investment
• Education leaders aiming to identify best practices and peer comparisons
• Researchers exploring global trends and systemic challenges
• International agencies and funders targeting support for educational development
• Advocates, journalists, and the public who want accessible, reliable education data

All GEFRI data and documentation are open and free to use for research, teaching, policy analysis, and advocacy.

How should GEFRI be used? ...and what are its limitations?

GEFRI is a comparative benchmarking tool designed to highlight broad strengths, weaknesses, and data gaps in national education systems. It is intended to inform:

• Strategic discussions among policymakers and education leaders
• International comparisons and high-level monitoring
• Research, advocacy, and public awareness
• Targeting areas for further investigation or investment

GEFRI should not be used:

• As a substitute for detailed national data or in-depth system diagnostics
• To rank schools, regions, or individuals within a country
• To make high-stakes funding or policy decisions without additional, context-specific evidence
• As a definitive measure of educational quality or outcomes

Important: GEFRI relies on the best available international data, but some values are imputed or estimated where official figures are missing. Country contexts, recent reforms, or rapid changes may not be fully captured. Scores reflect system-wide trends, not classroom realities.

We encourage users to interpret GEFRI as a starting point for further inquiry, and to consult local data and expertise for policy and planning.

Who built GEFRI?

GEFRI is developed and maintained by Education Futures, a global research and innovation consultancy dedicated to rethinking the future of education. Our mission is to spark new conversations, inspire bold ideas, and design fresh pathways for learners, educators, and communities to thrive in a rapidly evolving society.

Want to use GEFRI data in your own app?

Yes, you can! GEFRI offers a simple, open API for developers and researchers to access all index data programmatically. Get started by reading the API documentation.

The API is free to use and designed for easy integration, whether you’re building dashboards, custom analytics, visualizations, or research projects.

How can I use or cite GEFRI?

GEFRI data is open and free to use for research, teaching, policy analysis, and advocacy. Please cite Education Futures and provide a link to https://gefri.educationfutures.com.

Credits and attribution

• Major global education indicators sourced from the World Bank and UNESCO UIS.
• Country map topology from Natural Earth.
• Open-source tools: Next.js, D3, Tailwind CSS, Recharts.
• Project developed and maintained by Education Futures.

Contact and feedback

For feedback, technical questions, or partnership inquiries, please contact us.