Finland (1) is the best performing country in the region and on the Index overall. The country benefits from a well-educated young population with the second best basic education survival rate and the highest score for the quality of primary schools. Its 25–54 age group core working population shows the highest tertiary educational attainment rate in the Europe and Central Asia region but also second best overall in the world. Based on the World Economic Forum’s Executive Opinion Survey, Finland is also the country with the overall highest score on the Ease of finding skilled employees indicator, with even its 55–64 age group possessing the world’s highest attainment rate of tertiary education, highlighting the continuing long-term benefits of past human capital investments. Norway (2) follows Finland in second place on the overall Index, possessing similar strengths and the lowest unemployment rate in the region for its 25–54 prime working age group. The top three is completed by Switzerland (3), which benefits from a very high quality of primary schools and of the education system as a whole, but also from a strong rate of vocational training and high level of skills diversity. Switzerland is the best performing country for Staff training services, second best for Economic complexity and third best for its High-skilled employment share.
Up next are Sweden (6), Denmark (7) and the Netherlands (8), followed by Belgium (10), Austria (11) and Ireland (12). France (14) follows, with a high youth unemployment rate (placing it 94th in the world) and a