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. Data are updated monthly.

GEFRI enables users to compare countries across multiple dimensions: innovation, infrastructure, access, human capital, and governance. Rather than prescribing rankings or solutions, it encourages discovery, comparison, and reflection on what readiness means for different contexts.

Each country receives a composite score based on key dimensions such as innovation, infrastructure, human capital, governance, and equitable access to education. Scores are normalized on a 0-100 scale for comparability and should be read alongside the underlying dimension scores.

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.

• Scores above 75: Indicate leading or high-performing systems.
• Scores between 60-75: Reflect strong or moderately strong readiness.
• Scores between 40-60: Signal emerging or partial readiness.
• Scores below 40: Highlight systems with low readiness and substantial barriers.

Important: The GEFRI score is a comparative benchmark rather than an absolute judgment of quality. Review the dimension scores, confidence ratings, and contextual notes in each profile.

Microstates, defined here as countries or territories with fewer than 300,000 people, are excluded from the regional and global rankings to avoid distortions from extremely small populations.

Component indicators

GEFRI profiles countries across five dimensions that matter most for education futures:

• Innovation measures research and development investment, the presence of researchers, scientific and technical publishing, and high-tech exports.
• Infrastructure tracks access to electricity, internet connectivity, secure digital services, and mobile communication.
• Human Capital focuses on government investment in education, literacy rates, and participation in secondary and tertiary schooling.
• Governance assesses public institution effectiveness, regulatory quality, control of corruption, and voice and accountability.
• School Access and Gender Parity evaluates access and inclusion, with attention to gender parity and out-of-school rates. Future releases of GEFRI will expand this dimension to include additional equity indicators.

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 school access and gender parity.

• Comparability: Scores are normalized, allowing 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 strengths, weaknesses, and data gaps to support targeted improvements.

GEFRI is updated each month 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.

• 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 contextual 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.

Some indicators are backfilled by reporting agencies, which can create a delay between real-world changes and their appearance in GEFRI scores. Historical data for the previous four years is recalculated each year on July 15.

Use GEFRI as a starting point for inquiry, and consult local data and expertise for policy and planning.

Who built GEFRI?

GEFRI is developed and maintained by Education Futures LLC, using a methodology and core design created by Dr. John Moravec.

Education Futures LLC · Dr. John Moravec

Want to use GEFRI data in your own app?

GEFRI offers a simple, open API for developers and researchers to access index data programmatically. Get started with the API documentation. api documentation

The API is free to use and designed for dashboards, custom analytics, visualizations, and 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 link to gefri.educationfutures.com.

Credits and attribution

• Major global education indicators are sourced from the World Bank and UNESCO UIS. World Bank and UNESCO UIS
• Country map topology is derived from Natural Earth. Natural Earth.
• Open-source tools used include Next.js, D3, Tailwind CSS, and Recharts.
• The project is developed and maintained by Education Futures. Education Futures.

Contact and feedback

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