Saudi Arabia sees 'substantial improvement' in education, healthcare investment: study

Saudi Arabia has been ranked 65th out of 195 countries for its investments in education and healthcare, according to a study by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).

According to the study ranking 195 countries for their levels of human capital, Saudi Arabia had the second highest increase next to Turkey among all the countries analyzed.

Finland topped the ranking, while Turkey showed the most dramatic increase in human capital between 1990 and 2016. Asian countries with notable improvement include China, Thailand, Singapore, and Vietnam, while in Latin America, Brazil stands out for improvement.

“All these countries have had faster economic growth over this period than peer countries with lower levels of human capital improvement,” the study noted, adding “Some of the world’s most rapid improvements were in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.”

The Kingdom has been placed just behind Bosnia and Herzegovina and just ahead of Argentina, and its 65th ranking represents substantial improvement from its 1990 ranking of 117th, the study noted.

“It comes from having 17 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,” a statement said.

Researchers in the study also found that nations with greater improvements in human capital also tend to have faster growth in per capita GDP.

Countries in the highest quartile of improvements in human capital between 1990 and 2016 had a 1.1 percent higher median yearly GDP growth rate than countries in the bottom quartile of human capital improvements.