Korea, Dem. People's Rep.
East Asia & Pacific · Low income· 26.50M inhabitants
Last updated: November 11, 2025
Futures readiness profile
Key insights: Korea, Dem. People's Rep.
Korea, Dem. People's Rep. lags behind global peers in Infrastructure (36, 19th percentile) and Governance (7, 2nd 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
43.16
36th percentile
Higher scores indicate greater education futures readiness
Component scores
School Access and Gender Parity63.65
Near the global average · 52nd %-tile
Governance6.76
Below global avg. · 2nd %-tile
Captures the effectiveness and quality of policies, regulations, and governance that shape the educational environment.
Innovation63.06
Above global avg. · 85th %-tile
Reflects a country’s capacity to foster, produce, and apply new knowledge and technology in society and education.
Human Capital46.39
Near the global average · 38th %-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.
Infrastructure35.93
Below global avg. · 19th %-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 |