The present paper contains an analysis and interpretation of trends, opportunities and challenges in the development of human capital and its quality at country level, as well as in the comparative evaluation of success (the Republic of Moldova with three reference countries: Romania, Ukraine, Lithuania) in capitalizing on human capital. The Republic of Moldova registers modest results, both at national and international level, in capitalizing its own human capital. There is a serious shift on that: the low living standards of the population with a pronounced inequality of income; the inefficiency of state investments in education and health which is demonstrated by indicators that do not show significant quality changes; the failure of the socio-economic policies to capitalize on the demographic dividend, the country failing to integrate this potential in the labor market, but on the contrary it is losing it due to labor migration abroad, by accelerating the changing age structure of the population.