School closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented disruption to learning and the future earning capacities of the more than 1.6 billion affected learners, according to the 2021 estimates of the World Bank, UNESCO, and UNICEF. The economic cost of learning loss of this generation of students is also estimated to reach $17 trillion in lifetime earnings (in present value), or about 14% of today’s global Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This new projection reveals that the impact is more severe than previously thought, and far exceeds the $10 trillion estimate initially released in 2020 by the World Bank.
