Tonga
Last updated July 15, 2026
Composite GEFRI Score
Infrastructure is strongest, while Innovation remains a constraint
Tonga demonstrates early-stage readiness to meet the challenges and opportunities of education in a rapidly changing world (45th percentile worldwide). Investments are generating initial gains, yet substantial gaps persist in several dimensions.
- Global percentile
- 45th
- Global rank
- Not ranked (microstate)
- Regional rank
- Not ranked (microstate)
- Viewing data for
Country profile
Tonga remains in the emerging-readiness range, with progress visible but major gaps still limiting future readiness. Its weakest results are in Innovation (32, 12th percentile). These gaps continue to weigh on overall readiness.
Uneven scores across dimensions show where readiness conditions are less aligned.
R&D investment remains modest, affecting long-term innovation potential. 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.
GEFRI Composite presents a near-term leapfrog opportunity: performance is just below the global average, backed by enough observed data to support forward planning. Regionally, Innovation lags peers the most, signalling where investment could have the highest impact.
Most indicators are observed rather than imputed, so estimation uncertainty is limited.
Key insights
Scores range from Infrastructure (55.4) to Innovation (31.9), reflecting variation across dimensions.
Trails regional peers most clearly in Innovation.
Regional peers: East Asia & Pacific
Composite GEFRI Score
| Global rank | Regional rank | Country | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | Korea, Rep. | 77.90 |
| 3 | 2 | Hong Kong SAR, China | 77.59 |
| 4 | 3 | Singapore | 77.58 |
| 12 | 4 | Japan | 76.03 |
| 14 | 5 | Australia | 75.84 |
| 20 | 6 | New Zealand | 72.96 |
| 46 | 7 | Brunei Darussalam | 61.47 |
| — | — | NauruMicrostate | 60.97 |
| — | — | Northern Mariana IslandsMicrostate | 60.89 |
| 49 | 8 | Fiji | 60.57 |
| 50 | 9 | Thailand | 60.56 |
| — | — | GuamMicrostate | 59.78 |
| — | — | New CaledoniaMicrostate | 59.45 |
| — | — | PalauMicrostate | 59.12 |
| — | — | American SamoaMicrostate | 58.64 |
| 61 | 10 | Macao SAR, China | 58.41 |
| — | — | French PolynesiaMicrostate | 57.22 |
| 68 | 11 | Indonesia | 56.89 |
| 69 | 12 | Mongolia | 56.89 |
| 71 | 13 | Malaysia | 56.62 |
| 73 | 14 | Viet Nam | 55.90 |
| 75 | 15 | China | 55.59 |
| 87 | 16 | Philippines | 51.84 |
| — | — | SamoaMicrostate | 51.51 |
| — | — | TuvaluFCSMicrostate | 51.41 |
| — | — | TongaMicrostate | 48.23 |
| — | — | KiribatiFCSMicrostate | 46.37 |
| — | — | Marshall IslandsFCSMicrostate | 45.13 |
| — | — | Micronesia, Fed. Sts.FCSMicrostate | 41.97 |
| 112 | 17 | Vanuatu | 40.83 |
| 113 | 18 | Timor-LesteFCS | 40.80 |
| 115 | 19 | Korea, Dem. People's Rep. | 39.28 |
| 123 | 20 | Cambodia | 35.88 |
| 131 | 21 | Solomon IslandsFCS | 33.48 |
| 134 | 22 | Lao PDR | 32.64 |
| 147 | 23 | Papua New GuineaFCS | 27.72 |
| 151 | 24 | MyanmarFCS | 26.22 |