World-first global overview of engineering data to help improve safety and prosperity

The Global Engineering Capability Review (GECR) 2025, developed with the support of S&P Global Market Intelligence, analyses data from 115 geographies and finds a direct correlation between a country’s coordinated support of its engineering skills ecosystem and reduced risk in the engineered environment.

More than a thousand people die every day in accidents at work around the world, with occupational accident data showing a worrying increase in the safety gap between low- to middle-income countries and high-income countries. 

Access to engineering expertise and innovation is also critical to addressing global challenges such as climate change and sustainable growth. Trillions more dollars of infrastructure investment will be needed annually for the world to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. 

The Review shows that while nearly all geographies can do more to improve safety, countries with low engineering capacity, largely low- and middle-income countries, are most at risk of poor safety outcomes. It indicates an urgent need for investment in engineering capacity alongside the push for development in these countries to reduce the risks of harm.

To tackle the challenge of analysing large and complex global data sets, the Review uses two new indexes which map engineering capacity inputs, including skills, policies and investment, as well as safety and quality outputs and outcomes. A newly developed framework combines these to assess a region’s ability to deliver safe and effective engineering.

These findings can also be explored via an interactive dashboard that allows communities, governments, civil servants, industry, investors, academics and working engineers to explore local data and knowledge. Users can review where interventions could be most effective to address gaps and increased risk of harm, or how their region compares to local and global benchmarks.

The Engineering X programme will host a series of regional and sector-specific workshops to support decisionmakers in using the Review alongside local contexts with a view to developing interventions that improve engineering capability. Data suggests that where governance, diversity and partnerships are lacking this can be particularly detrimental.

Five ‘Spotlights’ will also be published to contextualise data from the Review, demonstrating the importance of collaboration and partnerships between all actors from government to industry in specific areas of interest: the use of AI, the sustainable energy transition, safe and sustainable mining, a safer end of life for engineering infrastructure, and a culture of continuous learning.

Professor Jarka Glassey FREng, Chair of the Engineering X Skills for Safety programme, said: “Now more than ever, individual countries need to be able to know if they are nurturing the appropriate engineering skills and shaping relevant policies to address current and future challenges. The GECR provides an evidence-based tool to support these decisions, and we hope that improvements in global data collection will mean that future reviews will be able to offer helpful insight on engineering capability in even more geographies.”

Dr Tim Slingsby, Director of Skills and Education at Lloyd's Register Foundation and programme board member, said: "The world faces many challenges, from climate change to food security and energy access. Globally, we can see that a greater number and diversity of engineers are required to address these challenges through safe, sustainable, and responsible solutions. However, without robust evidence it’s hard to advocate for capacity and capability-strengthening initiatives on any level. We believe that the Global Engineering Capability Review 2025 is a resource for change, where policy makers can identify gaps that are relevant to their own contexts and needs, fund appropriate skills and education initiatives, and deliver safer and more sustainable outcomes for workers and communities they serve."

Professor Karin Wolff, Teaching & Learning Advisor in the Faculty of Engineering, Stellenbosch University and President of the South African Society for Engineering Education, said: “We are constantly looking for data that is relevant to Africa. Too often we’re chasing global north standards while operating within global south parameters. Approaches to engineering education need to be localised and require collaboration with government and professional engineering institutions, among others. The data-driven, systems thinking approach of GECR 2025 gives us the information necessary to have meaningful conversations that will drive informed change.”