Country profile

Sao Tome and Principe

Sub-Saharan Africa Lower middle income236K inhabitants

Last updated December 22, 2025

Fragile/Conflict-Affected Country: This country is classified as experiencing institutional and social fragility. Data may not reflect the current situation due to instability.

Microstate notice: This country is classified as a microstate (population under 300,000) and is indexed but not included in GEFRI global or regional rankings.

Composite GEFRI Score

Severely underprepared

Sao Tome and Principe is severely underprepared (34th percentile worldwide). Key structural conditions limit capacity to plan, implement, and sustain forward-looking reforms. Higher scores indicate a system that is better prepared to anticipate and shape the future of learning.

38.53Composite score

Global percentile: 34th
Global rank: Not ranked (microstate)
Regional rank: Not ranked (microstate)
Viewing data for

Infrastructure

44.84

28th percentileGlobal avg. 56.42

Human Capital

44.27

35th percentileGlobal avg. 46.98

Innovation

18.90

5th percentileGlobal avg. 42.60

Governance

44.65

49th percentileGlobal avg. 47.71

Access & Parity

40.00

42nd percentileGlobal avg. 50.60

Country profile

Sao Tome and Principe trails global peers in Infrastructure (45, 28th percentile) and Innovation (19, 5th percentile). A coordinated reform effort is needed to strengthen education futures readiness.

Uneven scores across dimensions highlight areas that need targeted coordination. Literacy or tertiary enrollment gaps thin the talent pipeline and limit the country’s capacity to develop future-ready skills.

Sparse R&D investment and a small research workforce slow experimentation and delay new ideas from reaching learners. Policy execution and regulatory capacity remain weak, leaving reforms fragmented and hard to sustain. Girls outperform boys in secondary pathways, adding pressure to address male dropout risks.

Governance and Human Capital present a near-term leapfrog opportunity: performance is just below the global average, backed by enough observed data to support forward planning. Regionally, Sao Tome and Principe leads most clearly in School Access and Gender Parity, sitting well above the peer average.

Note: Most indicators rely on observed data, offering a dependable evidence base for decisions.

Key insights

Falls below many peers at the 34th percentile.
Scores range from Infrastructure (44.8) to Innovation (18.9), reflecting variation across dimensions.
Leads regional peers most clearly in Access & Parity.

Regional peers: Sub-Saharan Africa

Composite GEFRI score

Global rank	Regional rank	Country	Score
67	1	South Africa	57.14
68	2	Mauritius	56.87
—	—	SeychellesMicrostate	55.72
74	3	Botswana	55.44
108	4	Namibia	43.86
111	5	Ghana	40.92
113	6	Cabo Verde	39.81
115	7	Sierra Leone	38.84
—	—	Sao Tome and PrincipeFCSMicrostate	38.53
119	8	Eswatini	37.54
127	9	Senegal	35.31
128	10	Gabon	34.39
130	11	Rwanda	33.46
132	12	Kenya	33.01
136	13	Cote d'Ivoire	31.71
138	14	Gambia, The	30.79
140	15	Lesotho	29.76
141	16	Equatorial Guinea	29.48
142	17	Benin	29.14
143	18	Zambia	28.93
144	19	ZimbabweFCS	28.92
146	20	Tanzania	28.51
147	21	Togo	28.14
148	22	CameroonFCS	27.69
150	23	Mauritania	25.98
151	24	ComorosFCS	25.84
152	25	Angola	25.63
154	26	Congo, Rep.FCS	24.72
155	27	MozambiqueFCS	24.40
156	28	NigeriaFCS	24.09
157	29	EthiopiaFCS	24.04
158	30	Madagascar	23.66
159	31	Malawi	23.03
160	32	MaliFCS	23.02
161	33	Burkina FasoFCS	22.80
162	34	Uganda	22.60
164	35	Guinea	22.13
166	36	Liberia	21.10
167	37	NigerFCS	20.37
168	38	SudanFCS	20.10
169	39	BurundiFCS	18.87
170	40	Guinea-BissauFCS	18.69
171	41	EritreaFCS	18.19
172	42	Congo, Dem. Rep.FCS	17.22
174	43	ChadFCS	15.73
175	44	South SudanFCS	15.65
176	45	Somalia, Fed. Rep.FCS	14.75
177	46	Central African RepublicFCS	13.33