South Korea ranked 24th among 28 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries in terms of the state growth sustainability index, a local think tank said Sunday.

The Hyundai Research Institute has developed its own index to measure each state's sustainable growth levels. South Korea scored 0.443, or 81.7 percent of the average of 0.542 for the 28 OECD member states, the institute said in its weekly report released Friday.

"For sustainable growth, South Korea badly needs to improve its productivity. The country also needs to secure skilled human resources and promote the value-added services industry," Park Yong-jung, a researcher at the institute, said in the report.  

Denmark topped others with a score of 0.685, followed by Finland with 0.510 and Sweden, Luxembourg and Norway all with the same 0.648. Japan ranked 16th with 0.510, with the United States in 18th place with 0.503, the report showed.  

The overall sustainability index was calculated based on a country's growth potential in three sectors -- innovative growth, stable growth and balanced growth, the researcher said. 

South Korea ranked 20th with a score of 0.398 in the innovative growth index, 23rd with a score of 0.438 in the stable growth index and 27th with a score of 0.491 in the balanced growth index, the report said. (Yonhap)