Education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia continues to gain global recognition. The Kingdom advances five positions in the latest Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI, a report released by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), ranked Saudi Arabia 35th out of 191 countries for 2022. In the previous version of the report, Saudi Arabia was ranked in 40th place. In addition, the Kingdom ranked 10th among the G20 countries and made the most progress between 2019 and 2021.
In the axis of knowledge acquisition, the Kingdom has made significant progress by advancing 18 places in the Mean Years of Schooling Index. Saudi Arabia ranked 56th place compared to 74th place in the previous edition. This reflects the continuation of efforts to improve learning outcomes and the strengthening of the Kingdom’s education capacity in global competition.
The progress on the knowledge acquisition scale demonstrate the education system’s commitment to developing human capabilities, which enhances the Kingdom’s global competitiveness and contributes to its international ranking.
As it takes many years to achieve this level of progress, Saudi Arabia’s education system was able to reach these goals—outlined in the Kingdom Vision 2030—in a shorter time frame. The success is due in part to the investments in education and unceasing support made by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.
The UNDP 2022 report is based on three fundamental dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, knowledge, and an adequate standard of living. To that end, the Ministry of Education has been enacting policies and initiatives from early childhood education to lifelong learning in an effort to transform Saudi Arabia into a model knowledge society.
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