The 2025 Global Gender Gap Index examines gender parity in 148 countries, and analyses gender sensitive developments across two-thirds of the world’s economies. The Forum has been tracking global progress towards gender parity since 2006.
The 19th index looks at the status of parity across four dimensions – Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. According to its findings, 68.8% of the global gender gap has been closed, up 0.3 percentage points from last year. The Index finds notable momentum in 2024, with improvements in 11 out of 14 indicators. Top performers among lower-income groups have closed a greater share of their gender gaps than over half of the high-income economies. Till now no single economy has achieved full gender parity.
Iceland comes top for the 16th consecutive year with 92.6% of its gender gap closed – still the only economy to have closed more than 90% of its gap – while Europe dominates the top 10. The top three economies are all Nordic nations, with Finland and Norway ranked second and third, respectively – the same positions as 2024.
The UK has moved up to fourth place – from 14th in 2024 – with 83.8% of the gap closed. This is largely due to its historic, gender-equal cabinet and an increase in the number of women in parliament, which has taken its Political Empowerment score from 47.4% in 2024 to 64.3% in 2025. Moldova is also one of the new entries in the top 10, ranking seventh up from 13th, with 81.3% of its gap closed, and more than tripling its political parity score since 2006. New Zealand is one of the only two non-European economies in the top 10, but drops to fifth from fourth last year, while the other, Namibia, maintains its position in eighth with 81.1% of its gender gap closed
Latin America and the Caribbean are on track to reach parity in 57 years. The region has advanced 8.6 percentage points since 2006, showing rapid, coordinated progress is achievable. Europe is 76 years away from full parity, and Northern America 89 years, if the present trend continues.
As for regional comparison, in 2025, Southern Asia ranks 7th, with a gender parity score of 64.6%. Of the seven economies in the region, only Bangladesh (24th, 77.5%) finds a place in the top 50. In Economic Participation and Opportunity, the region scores 40.6%. Over time, Southern Asia has increased its parity score for economic representation for senior workers (+9.1 percentage points) and for professional and technical workers (+17.2 percentage points). However, the parity score in estimated earned income has dropped by -7.8 percentage points. In Educational Attainment, Southern Asia ranks sixth at 95.4pc.
Sadly, Pakistan is at the bottom among 148 countries in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2025 — with 56.7 per cent gender parity. In the latest report, Pakistan has been ranked below Sudan, (57pc, 147th), Chad (57.1pc, 146th), Iran (58.3pc,145th), Guinea (59.5pc, 144th), Democratic Republic of the Congo (60.1pc, 143rd), Niger (61.3pc,142nd), Algeria (61.4pc, 141st), and Mali (61.7pc, 140th).
In this year’s index, Pakistan saw its overall parity score decline from last year, from 57pc to 56.7pc. Overall Pakistan has closed +2.3 of its gender gap since 2006. Significantly, this year’s results are a second consecutive drop from the economy’s best score of 57.7pc, achieved in 2023. Pakistan’s parity in economic participation and opportunity has declined by 1.3 percentage points. While economic representation indicators have remained unchanged, income disparity in Pakistan has slightly increased since the last edition (0.02 points), as has wage inequality (4 percentage points).
The only sub-index improvement registered by Pakistan in this year’s edition is “Educational Attainment”, marking educational parity upwards by 1.5 percentage points to reach 85.1pc. This is due to an increase in female literacy rates (from 46.5pc to 48.5pc). However, parity has also risen because male enrolment shares have dropped in tertiary education, increasing the relative balance between men and women but lowering educational reach overall.
Further, Pakistan’s economy has seen political parity drop from 12.2pc in 2024 to 11pc in 2025. While parity in parliament increased by 1.2 percentage points, women’s ministerial representation dropped from 5.9pc in 2024 to zero in 2025 and with it the overall sub-index score. Interestingly, Pakistan is listed among countries including Azerbaijan, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, and Vanuatu that have all-male ministerial cabinets.
According to a recent report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Pakistan has one of the largest gender pay gaps (GPG) globally, with women earning significantly less than men in almost all sectors of the economy. The report says that the majority of the pay gap in Pakistan is not due to differences in skills, education or labour market characteristics but based on gender-based discrimination. The report points out that Pakistan’s GPG remains higher than that of many other South Asian countries. In Sri Lanka, the GPG based on hourly wages stands at 22pc. In Nepal, it is 18pc. In Bangladesh, the pay gap is actually reversed (-5pc), meaning women, on average, earn slightly more than men. In Pakistan, the GPG is estimated at 25pc when using hourly wages and 30pc when considering monthly wages. Both reports should act as an eye-opener for the authorities that be.