Sri Lanka was ranked at 60th position among 124 countries in the global Human Capital Index, released by World Economic Forum, which measures the countries in terms of the economies leveraging their human capital.

Finland has gained the first place and is followed by Norway, Switzerland, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, New Zealand and Belgium in the first 10.

WEF said the list has been compiled on the basis of 46 indicators on "how well they are developing and deploying their human capital, focusing on education, skills and employment".

"It aims to understand whether countries are wasting or leveraging their human potential," WEF added.

India was ranked at the 100th position of the index while Nepal (106), Myanmar (112) and Pakistan (113) occupy even lower positions.

WEF said that 14 countries have reached 80 per cent human capital optimization, while 38 countries score between 70 per cent and 80 per cent.

A further 40 countries score between 60 per cent and 70 per cent, while 23 countries score 50-60 per cent and nine countries remain below 50 per cent.

In Asia and the Pacific, where the majority of the world's population is concentrated, the spread between the highest and lowest performing countries is among the widest, the report also indicated.