World Economic Forum | Gender Gap Report 2025

The 19th edition of the Global Gender Gap Index assesses gender parity across 148 economies and tracks long-term trends for 100 countries since 2006. In 2025, the global gender gap stands at 68.8% closed, a marginal improvement on 2024. At the current pace, full parity remains 123 years away, highlighting the persistent gap between policy ambition and real-world outcomes.

No economy has yet reached full parity. Iceland continues to lead, while the top 10 economies, mostly European, have all closed at least 80% of their gaps. High-income economies perform better on average, but several lower-income economies outperform many wealthier peers. Across dimensions, Health and Survival and Educational Attainment are near parity, whereas Economic Participation and Opportunity and Political Empowerment remain the weakest areas, with political parity below 25% globally.

Regional performance varies widely. Northern America and Europe lead overall, Latin America and the Caribbean shows the fastest long-term progress, and Sub-Saharan Africa displays sharp internal contrasts. Southern Asia and the Middle East and North Africa remain the lowest-ranked regions. Despite gains in education and political representation, persistent labour-market inequalities, weak leadership pipelines and gaps between gender-equal laws and their implementation continue to slow progress and limit the economic and social benefits of parity.