The report and its associated Global Database on Intergenerational Mobility include several metrics of how the economic and educational opportunities of children are related to the situations of their parents.
One of the World Bank's measures is the share of children born to parents in the bottom half of the educational attainment in a country that end up in the top quarter of that distribution as adults — that is, how likely it is that someone born into a family with a more modest background can grow up to have similar educational opportunities to his or her peers with more affluent parents.
The US does not fare particularly well on this metric: 12.5% of children born in the 1980s to parents in the bottom half of the educational attainment distribution ended up in the top quarter. 88 of the 135 countries for which the World Bank estimated this figure had a higher share, and all but three of the 35 countries the World Bank identified as high-income, developed economies had a higher share.
Here are the 31 high-income countries in the World Bank's database where a higher share of children born into the bottom half ended up in the top quarter, ranked from lowest to highest on that measure:
31. Ireland: 12.9% of children with parents in the bottom half ended up in the top quarter.
Madrugada Verde/Shutterstock
30. Italy: 13.0% of children with parents in the bottom half ended up in the top quarter.
Getty Images
29. Hungary: 13.3% of children with parents in the bottom half ended up in the top quarter.
Reuters
28. Latvia: 13.3% of children with parents in the bottom half ended up in the top quarter.
Karolis Kavolelis/Shutterstock
27. Croatia: 13.9% of children with parents in the bottom half ended up in the top quarter.
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Andy is a senior economic data editor at Business Insider. He helps lead the economy team, focusing on our coverage of economic and other data, economic trends, the labor market, affordability, and the Fed.He studied mathematics at the University of Chicago and Purdue University.
