E-book link: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-96-7591-3

As the wave of digitization sweeps across the global education sector, countries are moving towards the future at different paces. The book Global Digital Education Development Index Report 2024 - World Picture and China's Orientation starts from a global perspective and adopts an evidence-based evaluation methodology, constructs a global digital education development evaluation index system and evidence base, and provides a comprehensive evaluation of the global digital education development level.

This report is dedicated to outlining the macro picture of the development of global digital education for education administrators, education researchers, school administrators, practitioners of technology enterprises and people interested in educational innovation and technological advancement, so as to provide valuable references for the joint construction of a better future for human education.

Based on the index analysis of 62 digital education pioneering countries, this report reveals the stage characteristics of the development of global digital education, pointing out that nearly 70% of the countries are still in the resource sharing stage. The development of digital education in each country shows unevenness in six dimensions: literacy, system, institution, content, paradigm and governance. China has been among the first echelon of global digital education development, and has become an important force in promoting global digital education development. Looking ahead, China will further play the role of digitalization as a lever for prying educational change, and comprehensively promote the construction of a new form of education.

Global Overview of Digital Education Development

01 More Leading Countries Emerging with Steady Overall Progress; “AI + Education” Becomes a New Global Trend in Digital Education Transformation

GDEI 2025 indicates that global digital education development continues to demonstrate steady progress overall, although significant imbalances across different dimensions remain evident. Based on comprehensive analysis of national evidence and policy materials related to digital education, the number of countries included in the index assessment has expanded from 62 to 72.

Over the past year, most countries have made varying degrees of progress in advancing digital education. The overall global level of digital education development has shown modest improvement, with the average index score increasing by 4.54%. Compared with the previous year, 49 countries achieved higher index scores.

At present, the overall global landscape remains fundamentally characterized by the “resource-sharing stage” of digital education development. Due to the addition of 10 new countries in GDEI 2025, the proportion of countries across the five developmental stages—Transformation Initiation, Resource Sharing, Data-Driven Development, AI Integration, and Ecosystem Reshaping—has undergone slight changes. Specifically, 15% of countries are at the Transformation Initiation stage, 68% remain at the Resource Sharing stage, and 17% exhibit characteristics of the Data-Driven Development stage. Although AI integration has attracted increasing attention from many countries, only a limited number of leading nations are actively advancing this transformation. Meanwhile, no country has yet reached the highest stage of development, Ecosystem Reshaping (see Figure 1).

Notably, while leading countries in digital education continue to intensify efforts to explore the integration of artificial intelligence and education, the vast majority of countries have also begun paying closer attention to the transformative impact of AI on education systems.

02 Rankings Among High-Performing Countries Remain Relatively Stable, While Clustering Characteristics Become More Pronounced

A comparison between the rankings across the two editions of the index shows that the top 20 countries have remained largely stable overall (see Figure 2). Among the top 10 countries in GDEI 2025, the top four positions continue to be occupied by the United States, Finland, South Korea, and Singapore, maintaining the same order as in the previous edition. Countries ranked fifth through tenth are Germany, China, France, Estonia, the United Kingdom, and Australia, although their specific positions have shifted compared with the previous year.

Among the top 20 countries in GDEI 2025, while some ranking adjustments occurred, only the countries ranked 19th and 20th changed from the previous year. Sweden and Hungary each rose by two positions and entered the top 20 for the first time. Meanwhile, Brazil and Saudi Arabia fell by three and seven positions respectively, ranking 23rd and 26th.

Compared with the previous edition, the clustering characteristics among the top 20 countries have become even more pronounced. In terms of economic development, the number of high-income countries increased from 17 to 18, accounting for 90% of the top 20. Only two upper-middle-income countries—China and Malaysia—remain within the top 20. In terms of population size, the proportion of countries with populations below 50 million further increased, rising from 12 to 13 countries and accounting for 65% of the top 20. Geographically, these countries are primarily concentrated in Europe, Asia, North America, and Oceania.