Lao PDR
East Asia & Pacific · Lower middle income· 7.77M inhabitants
Last updated: November 11, 2025
Futures readiness profile
Key insights: Lao PDR
Lao PDR lags behind global peers in Human Capital (28, 15th percentile), Governance (25, 16th percentile), and School Access and Gender Parity (10, 28th percentile). The remaining dimensions are closer to the global average, but none demonstrate global leadership or advanced futures readiness. Broad-based, high-impact interventions are needed to drive overall education futures readiness and resilience.
Composite GEFRI Score
30.68
22nd percentile
Higher scores indicate greater education futures readiness
Component scores
School Access and Gender Parity10.00
Below global avg. · 28th %-tile
Governance24.87
Below global avg. · 16th %-tile
Captures the effectiveness and quality of policies, regulations, and governance that shape the educational environment.
Innovation38.57
Near the global average · 42nd %-tile
Reflects a country’s capacity to foster, produce, and apply new knowledge and technology in society and education.
Human Capital27.79
Below global avg. · 15th %-tile
Assesses the educational attainment and capacity of a country’s population, focusing on access and completion at secondary and tertiary levels as well as literacy.
Infrastructure52.15
Near the global average · 32nd %-tile
Measures the availability and quality of basic digital and electrical infrastructure that supports education.
Regional peers: East Asia & Pacific
| Global rank | Regional rank | Country | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | Korea, Rep. | 80.27 |
| 4 | 2 | Singapore | 79.39 |
| 5 | 3 | Hong Kong SAR, China | 79.21 |
| 7 | 4 | Japan | 78.26 |
| 9 | 5 | Australia | 77.71 |
| 17 | 6 | New Zealand | 74.85 |
| — | — | Northern Mariana Islands(microstate) | 71.25 |
| — | — | New Caledonia(microstate) | 70.50 |
| — | — | Guam(microstate) | 69.62 |
| — | — | American Samoa(microstate) | 69.08 |
| — | — | French Polynesia(microstate) | 68.68 |
| 44 | 7 | China | 63.63 |
| 49 | 8 | Brunei Darussalam | 61.74 |
| 50 | 9 | Thailand | 61.59 |
| 54 | 10 | Indonesia | 60.52 |
| — | — | Palau(microstate) | 59.99 |
| — | — | Nauru(microstate) | 59.98 |
| 61 | 11 | Macao SAR, China | 59.29 |
| 64 | 12 | Viet Nam | 58.46 |
| 72 | 13 | Malaysia | 56.52 |
| 73 | 14 | Mongolia | 56.49 |
| 74 | 15 | Fiji | 56.38 |
| — | — | Tuvalu(microstate) | 56.33 |
| — | — | Kiribati(microstate) | 53.22 |
| 86 | 16 | Philippines | 52.65 |
| — | — | Samoa(microstate) | 50.71 |
| — | — | Tonga(microstate) | 48.79 |
| 105 | 17 | Timor-Leste | 47.65 |
| — | — | Marshall Islands(microstate) | 45.83 |
| 115 | 18 | Korea, Dem. People's Rep. | 43.16 |
| — | — | Micronesia, Fed. Sts.(microstate) | 42.86 |
| 118 | 19 | Vanuatu | 40.73 |
| 128 | 20 | Cambodia | 35.01 |
| 129 | 21 | Myanmar | 34.36 |
| 134 | 22 | Solomon Islands | 32.62 |
| 139 | 23 | Lao PDR | 30.68 |
| 147 | 24 | Papua New Guinea | 27.30 |