country profile

Samoa

East Asia & PacificLower middle income219K population

Last updated October 1, 2026

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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.
Progressing readiness

Composite GEFRI Score

Access & Parity is a strength, but Innovation lags

Samoa shows progressing readiness to meet the challenges and opportunities of education in a rapidly changing world (50th percentile worldwide). Reforms are translating into broader capability, though uneven performance continues to slow system-wide alignment.

61.50Composite score
Global percentile
50th
Global rank
Not ranked (microstate)
Regional rank
Not ranked (microstate)
Viewing data for
Progressing readiness
Infrastructure
60.30
28th percentileGlobal avg. 70.44
Progressing readiness
Human Capital
62.98
38th percentileGlobal avg. 66.18
Severely underprepared
Innovation
35.29
30th percentileGlobal avg. 48.64
Emerging readiness
Governance
59.88
72nd percentileGlobal avg. 47.24
Advanced readiness
Access & Parity
89.05
67th percentileGlobal avg. 60.85

Country profile

Samoa shows progressing readiness, with important strengths but continued gaps across the system. Its weakest results are in Innovation (35, 30th percentile). These gaps continue to weigh on overall readiness.

Uneven scores across dimensions show where readiness conditions are less aligned. Low internet adoption slows digital participation and constrains system-wide modernization. Limited tertiary enrollment narrows future talent pipelines and innovation capacity.

Sparse R&D investment and a small research workforce slow experimentation and delay new ideas from reaching learners. Regulatory quality falls short of global standards, signalling structural hurdles in policy execution. Girls outperform boys in secondary pathways, adding pressure to address male dropout risks.

Human Capital presents a near-term leapfrog opportunity: performance is just below the global average, backed by enough observed data to support forward planning.

Some indicators are imputed, so the profile should be read with moderate caution.

Key insights

Scores range from Access & Parity (89.0) to Innovation (35.3), reflecting variation across dimensions.

Leads regional peers most clearly in Access & Parity.

Regional peers: East Asia & Pacific

Composite GEFRI Score

Global rankRegional rankCountryScore
61Korea, Rep.87.81
82Australia87.35
93Singapore87.32
124Japan86.36
145New Zealand86.16
176Hong Kong SAR, China84.76
——PalauMicrostate73.70
——NauruMicrostate72.29
497Thailand71.84
528Brunei Darussalam71.04
——GuamMicrostate70.25
589China69.90
——American SamoaMicrostate69.54
6210Malaysia69.47
——Northern Mariana IslandsMicrostate69.09
6411Mongolia68.89
——New CaledoniaMicrostate68.87
6712Fiji68.59
6913Macao SAR, China68.46
——French PolynesiaMicrostate67.52
7414Viet Nam67.48
7515Indonesia67.40
——TongaMicrostate61.97
——SamoaMicrostate61.50
8916Philippines61.14
——TuvaluFCSMicrostate59.55
——Marshall IslandsFCSMicrostate55.97
10917Vanuatu54.91
——KiribatiFCSMicrostate50.18
11718Timor-LesteFCS48.26
——Micronesia, Fed. Sts.FCSMicrostate47.16
12419Cambodia44.55
12520Korea, Dem. People's Rep.44.05
13521Solomon IslandsFCS40.74
14222MyanmarFCS37.12
14323Lao PDR36.74
15624Papua New GuineaFCS32.24