The World Economic Forum (WEF) reported today that the global gender gap closed to 68.8%, marking the strongest annual advancement since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The global body in its ‘Global Gender Gap Report 2025’ released today noted, however, that despite the improvement in the gender gap index, full parity remained 123 years away at current rates.
Data in the report showed that Iceland led the rankings for the 16th year running, followed by Finland, Norway, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
The 19th edition of the report, which covers 148 economies, revealed both encouraging momentum and persistent structural barriers facing women worldwide.
The WEF noted that the progress made in this edition was driven primarily by significant strides in political empowerment and economic participation, while educational attainment and health and survival maintained near-parity levels above 95%.
It, however, reported that despite women representing 41.2% of the global workforce, a stark leadership gap persisted with women holding only 28.8% of top leadership positions.
Commenting on the report’s findings, the WEF’s Managing Director, Saadia Zahidi, said: “At a time of heightened global economic uncertainty and a low growth outlook combined with technological and demographic change, advancing gender parity represents a key force for economic renewal.
“The evidence is clear. Economies that have made decisive progress towards parity are positioning themselves for stronger, more innovative and more resilient economic progress”, she added.
An analysis of the data in the report reflected that Iceland maintained its position as the world’s most gender-equal economy for the 16th consecutive year, with 92.6% of its gender gap closed – the only economy to surpass 90% parity while Finland (87.9%), Norway (86.3%), the UK (83.8%) and New Zealand (82.7%) round out the top five positions.
According to the global body, all top 10 economies have closed at least 80% of their gender gaps, the only economies to achieve this milestone. European nations dominate the top 10 rankings with eight positions – Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden have maintained top 10 status since 2006.
On gender parity and economic progress, the index considered only at gender gaps in outcomes and not at the overall levels of resources and opportunities in a country and found a slight correlation between the current income levels of the countries covered and their gender gaps, with richer economies being slightly more gender equal. At the aggregate level, high-income economies have closed 74.3% of their gender gap – slightly higher than the averages observed in lower income groups: 69.6% among upper-middle income, 66.0% among lower-middle-income and 66.4% among low-income economies.
Yet, the report shows that correlation is low and does not indicate causation. Top performers among the three lower income groups have closed a greater share of their gender gaps than over half of the economies in the high-income group. While resources matter, it is not richer countries alone that can afford to invest in gender parity – economies can integrate parity into their growth strategies at all levels of development. Historically, those who have done well at developing and integrating their full human capital tend to have more sustainable and prosperous economies as a result. Leveraging the full base of talent and diverse ideas in an economy can unlock creativity and drive innovation, growth and productivity.
An assessment of the gender gap on regional basis showed that Northern America led the world with a gender parity score of 75.8%, showing particularly strong performance in economic participation and opportunity (76.1%) where it leads all regions. The region has made significant progress in political empowerment since 2006, narrowing its political parity gap by 19.3 percentage points.
Europe ranked second with a gender parity score of 75.1%, having closed 6.3 percentage points of its overall gap since 2006. The region has particularly strong performance in political empowerment (35.4%) where it ranks highest globally. European economies continue to lead the overall rankings, occupying eight of the top 10 positions.
Latin America and the Caribbean stood out as the region with the fastest rate of progress, ranking third with a score of 74.5% and having advanced 8.6 percentage points since 2006 – making the greatest overall progress of all regions. This regional success demonstrates that rapid progress is achievable with focused policy interventions, offering a model for economic acceleration through gender parity.
Central Asia placed fourth with a score of 69.8%. Armenia (73.1%) and Georgia (72.9%) are the region’s top performers, each closing more than 70% of their gender gaps and leading regional progress in economic participation and educational attainment.
Eastern Asia and the Pacific ranked fifth with a score of 69.4%, achieving the second-highest regional score for economic participation and opportunity at 71.6%. New Zealand (82.7%), Australia (79.2%) and the Philippines (78.1%) are the top performers in the region, with New Zealand the only economy from the region in the global top 10.
Sub-Saharan Africa ranked sixth with a score of 68.0%. The region displays wide variation across countries, yet its success stories demonstrate that progress is possible in all economic contexts. The region has made significant progress in political empowerment, with women now holding 40.2% of ministerial roles and 37.7% of parliamentary seats.
Southern Asia ranked seventh with a score of 64.6%. Bangladesh (77.5%) is the region’s top performer, and the only Southern Asian economy in the global top 50. Significant improvements in educational attainment since 2006 are creating a foundation for future economic gains.
Lastly, Middle East and Northern Africa ranked eighth with a score of 61.7%. However, the region has shown considerable improvement in political empowerment since 2006, with the regional average more than tripling and gaining 8.3 percentage points in this dimension.
The WEF projected that based on the collective speed of progress of 100 economies covered continuously since 2006, it would take 123 years to reach full parity globally – an 11-year improvement from last edition’s estimate but still falling more than a century short of the Sustainable Development Goals.
It, however, pointed out the fastest-moving economies demonstrated that rapid acceleration is possible when gender parity becomes a national priority, listing the economies that proved most successful at bridging their gender gaps across each income group respectively as including Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Ecuador, Bangladesh and Ethiopia.
The global body also reported that political empowerment had seen the most improvement overall, with the gap narrowing by 9.0 percentage points since 2006, yet at the current pace it will still take 162 years to fully close this gap. In addition, it noted that economic participation and opportunity had gained 5.6 percentage points over time, with economic parity projected to take 135 years at current rates.
It further clarified: “Both technological transformation as well as geoeconomic fragmentation create new risks that could reverse the economic gains made by women in recent decades.
“Women in lower- and middle-income economies in particular moved into formal and better remunerated employment in export sectors in recent years. These roles could be at risk in the face of potential trade contractions. As evidenced by the COVID-19 emergency, while both men and women suffer under trade shocks, effects for women tend to last longer and are harder to reverse, exacerbating pre-existing disparities in earnings, assets and wealth. It will therefore be important to keep the gendered job and wage impacts of trade fragmentation and its effects on growth and prosperity at the forefront as trade policy evolves in 2025”, the WEF added.
On workforce transformation, the report showed that massive untapped potential existed as
educational attainment is rising, but its economic return remains uneven. Women outpace men in higher education, but their presence in senior leadership stagnates as education levels rise – even the most educated women represent less than one third of top managers, noting that this underutilization of human capital represents both a systemic inefficiency and a missed economic opportunity.
Reacting to the report’s findings, Global Head of Public Policy at LinkedIn, Sue Duke, said: “Women’s progress in leadership continues to decline. As the global economy transforms, AI accelerates, and countries look to combat stagnating growth, this leadership gap should set alarm bells ringing.
“The varied experience and uniquely human skills that women bring to the leadership table are essential to unlocking the full promise of an AI-powered economy, yet are being overlooked at exactly the moment they are needed most”, the analyst added.
The WEF further stated: “The path to leadership is less and less linear for workers overall, but especially for women. LinkedIn data reveals that it is now over twice as common for leaders to have worked in at least two different industries, functions or companies – suggesting both greater adaptability and potential barriers to linear advancement within single sectors.
“Career breaks are at the heart of this dynamic, with women being 55.2% more likely to take them than men. Women also spend on average half a year more than men away from work, with caregiving responsibilities driving most of these interruptions. This shift from rigid career ladders reflects the reality of modern work patterns, where lateral moves, sector transitions and re-entry after breaks are becoming the norm rather than the exception”, it added.
