Pakistan ranked 164th in education, health sectors

Islamabad : Pakistan ranks 164th in the world for its investments in education and health care as measurements of its commitment to economic growth, states the first-ever scientific study ranking countries for their levels of human capital. The country is placed just behind Rwanda (ranked 163rd) and is just ahead of Tanzania (ranked 165th).

Titled ‘Measuring human capital: A systematic analysis of 195 countries and territories, 1990 to 2016,] the study was published in the international medical journal ‘The Lancet’ and was available online on September 24. Based on analysis of an extensive array of data from numerous sources, including government agencies, schools, and health care systems, the study has been produced by The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), independent global health research organization at the University of Washington that provides comparable measurement of the world’s most important health problems and evaluates the strategies used to address them.

Pakistan’s ranking of 164th in 2016 represents an increase from its 1990 ranking of 166th. It comes from having six years of expected human capital, measured as the number of years a person can be expected to work in the years of peak productivity, taking into account life expectancy, functional health, years of schooling, and learning.

Overall, Pakistan’s residents had 39 out of a possible 45 years of life between the ages of 20 and 64; expected educational attainment of nine years out of a possible of 18 years in school; and a learning score of 68 and a functional health score of 45, both out of 100. Learning is based on average student scores on internationally comparable tests. Components measured in the functional health score include stunting, wasting, anaemia, cognitive impairments, hearing and vision loss, and infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.