World Bank Aims to Shame With ‘Human Capital’ Ranking

Institution seeks with new index to spur countries to invest in their people

BALI, Indonesia—The World Bank’s new “human capital” ranking, which scores countries on investments in health and education, was released Thursday morning here and has already drawn plenty of criticism—by design.

The World Bank rated 157 countries on whether their health and education systems would lead to a productive workforce, in an initiative designed to call out countries for not preparing their populations for the future.

“We...