Adjusted net savings is designed to look beyond conventional saving. The World Bank starts with net national saving, adds education expenditure, and subtracts depletion of energy, minerals and forests together with estimated damage from carbon dioxide and particulate emissions. The 2021 indicator expresses the result as a share of gross national income, making it possible to compare economies of very different sizes on the same percentage scale.
The underlying country-and-economy master contains 217 rows. A 2021 value is available for 118 of them, while 99 are source-missing. All summary statistics in this article use only the 118 reported observations; missing rows are not converted to zero. That distinction matters because a real zero and an unavailable observation have completely different meanings.
Table of Contents
What adjusted net savings measures
The indicator is sometimes called genuine saving because it modifies standard saving to account for investment in human capital and the use of natural and environmental assets. Education expenditure is added because it can build human capital. Energy depletion, mineral depletion and net forest depletion are deducted because extracting or losing those assets reduces the stock of wealth. Estimated damage from carbon dioxide and particulate emissions is also deducted.
A high percentage therefore does not simply mean that households or governments put more cash aside. It means that the adjusted accounting balance remains relatively large after the specified additions and deductions. A negative percentage means the adjusted balance falls below zero. It is a warning signal within this accounting framework, but it should not be treated as a complete verdict on sustainability or as proof of a single policy failure.
The 2021 distribution across reporting economies
Across the 118 reported observations, the unweighted mean is 7.85% of GNI and the median is 8.39%. The first quartile is 2.45% and the third quartile is 15.47%. The gap between the lowest and highest values is more than 113 percentage points, largely because Timor-Leste sits far below the rest of the distribution at -81.62%.
24 economies, or 20.3% of the reported set, have negative values; 94 are positive. Nineteen observations fall from 0% to below 5%, 25 from 5% to below 10%, 35 from 10% to below 20%, and 15 are at least 20%. The middle of the distribution is therefore much tighter than the full range suggests.
| Range | Observations | Share of 118 |
|---|---|---|
| Below 0% | 24 | 20.3% |
| 0% to <5% | 19 | 16.1% |
| 5% to <10% | 25 | 21.2% |
| 10% to <20% | 35 | 29.7% |
| 20% or more | 15 | 12.7% |
Where the highest reported values appear
Bangladesh records the highest 2021 value at 32.18% of GNI. Singapore follows at 31.55% and Jamaica at 30.81%. Qatar reaches 25.47%, Nepal 24.42%, Mauritania 24.26%, Brunei Darussalam 23.99%, and Cabo Verde 23.75%. These values show where the adjusted saving balance is largest relative to GNI among the economies with a reported observation.
The list is not an overall environmental ranking. Two economies can reach similar adjusted net savings through very different combinations of national saving, education expenditure, resource depletion and pollution damages. The aggregate indicator alone does not show the contribution of each component. Explaining why a country is high requires checking those components or related wealth-accounting series rather than assigning a cause from the final percentage.
| Economy | Adjusted net savings, 2021 |
|---|---|
| Bangladesh | 32.18% |
| Singapore | 31.55% |
| Jamaica | 30.81% |
| Qatar | 25.47% |
| Nepal | 24.42% |
| Mauritania | 24.26% |
| Brunei Darussalam | 23.99% |
| Cabo Verde | 23.75% |
What a negative value means
Timor-Leste has the lowest observation at -81.62%. Lebanon is -27.91%, Guinea -16.28%, the Democratic Republic of Congo -11.19%, Oman -10.32%, Sudan -8.50%, Mongolia -8.08%, and Mozambique -6.98%. Under the World Bank method, a negative result means the deductions for capital consumption, natural-resource depletion and emissions damage, together with the other components of the calculation, leave the adjusted saving balance below zero.
That does not identify the dominant driver. Resource-intensive economies may be strongly affected by energy or mineral depletion, while other cases may reflect weak net saving, environmental damages or a mixture of factors. One-year observations can also move with economic shocks, commodity conditions and national-account revisions. A persistent pattern across several years carries more information than a single negative observation.
| Economy | Adjusted net savings, 2021 |
|---|---|
| Timor-Leste | -81.62% |
| Lebanon | -27.91% |
| Guinea | -16.28% |
| Congo, Dem. Rep. | -11.19% |
| Oman | -10.32% |
| Sudan | -8.50% |
| Mongolia | -8.08% |
| Mozambique | -6.98% |
Why the median deserves attention
The simple mean gives every reporting economy the same weight. It is not a GNI-weighted world aggregate and should not be read as saying that the world saved 7.85% of global income on an adjusted basis. Small and large economies contribute one observation each to that calculation.
The median of 8.39% is less sensitive to the unusually low Timor-Leste value and the small group above 30%. Looking at the median, quartiles and the number of negative observations together gives a more stable description of the cross-country pattern. Rankings are useful for locating unusual observations, but they are weaker as a stand-alone explanation of sustainability.
Coverage is only 54.4% of the country-and-economy master
The source file preserves 99 rows as missing rather than filling them. With 118 reported values out of 217 rows, coverage is 54.4%. A missing row means that the selected 2021 observation is unavailable in the source used here; it does not mean the country had an adjusted net savings rate of zero.
This limitation matters when drawing geographic conclusions. If missing observations are concentrated in particular regions or income groups, the reported distribution may not represent those groups equally. A map can still show where data exist, but any blank areas must remain visibly distinct from economies reporting low or negative values.
What the indicator can and cannot tell us
Adjusted net savings is useful because it connects saving with produced, human and natural capital in one accounting framework. It asks whether current income generation is accompanied by enough saving and investment, after specified depletion and pollution costs, to leave a positive adjusted balance. That makes it a useful complement to GDP growth and conventional saving measures.
It is not a comprehensive sustainability index. It does not directly measure inequality, biodiversity, governance, resilience, fiscal risk or every form of environmental damage. Nor does a positive value guarantee that all forms of wealth are increasing. The indicator should be combined with component series, wealth measures and longer time trends when the analytical question is broader than the adjusted saving balance itself.
How to use the 2021 comparison responsibly
First, keep the year fixed: every value in this comparison is for 2021. Second, keep the unit fixed: the percentages are relative to GNI, not absolute dollars. Third, keep missing values separate from zero. Fourth, avoid causal explanations unless component data support them. These rules prevent a ranking table from becoming more precise than the underlying evidence.
The most useful next step for a country-specific investigation is to break the indicator into net national saving, education expenditure, energy depletion, mineral depletion, net forest depletion, carbon dioxide damage and particulate-emissions damage. A time series can then show whether an exceptional 2021 reading was temporary or part of a persistent trajectory.
Source and calculation notes
The source is the World Bank World Development Indicators series NY.ADJ.SVNG.GN.ZS, “Adjusted net savings, including particulate emission damage (% of GNI).” The World Bank defines the measure as net national savings plus education expenditure minus energy depletion, mineral depletion, net forest depletion, carbon dioxide damage and particulate-emissions damage.
Summary statistics, band counts and the high/low tables were calculated directly from the 118 non-missing 2021 observations supplied for this comparison. Aggregate groups are excluded. The 99 source-missing rows remain missing, and no values are imputed.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a negative adjusted net savings rate mean?
It means the adjusted saving balance falls below zero after the additions and deductions in the World Bank methodology. A single negative year should not be treated as a complete long-run sustainability judgment.
Is the 7.85% average a global adjusted saving rate?
No. It is an unweighted mean of 118 reporting economies. It is not weighted by GNI and is not a global aggregate.
Should missing 2021 observations be treated as zero?
No. Missing data and an observed value of zero are different. The 99 source-missing rows remain missing in this comparison.
Related Articles
Green Map creates custom-edited map images using open geographic data sources such as geoBoundaries, Natural Earth, OpenStreetMap, and government open data. These maps are edited visual materials, not raw data files, and are provided for education, documents, presentations, and graphic reference.
