Global Gender Gap Index 2026

Global Gender Gap Index Latest News

India retained the 131st rank on the Global Gender Gap Index 2026 released by the World Economic Forum recently, with Iceland, Finland and Norway maintaining their top three slots respectively.

About Global Gender Gap Index 2026

• It is an annual index designed to measure gender equality.
• It is released by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
• It benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions (subindexes): Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. 
• Since launching in 2006, it is the longest-standing index tracking the progress of numerous countries’ efforts towards closing these gaps over time. 

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Global Gender Gap Index 2026 Highlights

• Globally, 69.2 percent of the gender gap has now been closed, up by 0.4 percentage points over the last year.
• Iceland is still the world’s number one, with 93 percent of its gender gap closed. 
• Finland and Norway follow with 87.2 percent and 85.7 percent, respectively. 
• Namibia is fourth with 84.5 percent, followed by the UK, New Zealand, Sweden, Australia, Germany, and Ireland. 
• Australia cracked the top 10 for the first time. 
• Across the 143 economies covered in both the 2025 and 2026 editions, the overall score increased by 0.4 percentage points. 
• Education recorded the largest increase year on year, rising from 95.3 percent to 96.9 percent. 
• Economic participation score increased from 61.3 percent to 61.7 percent, and health and survival improved from 96.1 percent to 96.2 percent. 
• Political empowerment, however, moved in the opposite direction, sliding down from 22.5 percent to 22.1 percent.
• India stands at 131st spot, with 64.5 percent. 
• Only 14 countries ranked below India on the index of 145 countries. These include Papua New Guinea, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Tajikistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, Mali, Algeria, and Congo. 
• Chad was the lowest-ranked country in the index, with Iran and Pakistan joining it in the bottom three.
• Overall, India’s gender parity increased by 4.3 percentage points since 2006, primarily due to gains in educational attainment.
• In the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, India reported a 41.2 percent parity score, 0.5 higher than the previous edition but 3.5 percentage points lower from its best result in 2013.

News: TH