The global gender gap index benchmarks national gender gaps on economic, political, education, and health-based criteria. In 2025, the country offering the most gender equal conditions was Iceland, with a score of 0.93. Overall, the Nordic countries make up 3 of the 5 most gender equal countries worldwide. The Nordic countries are known for their high levels of gender equality, including high female employment rates and evenly divided parental leave. Sudan is the second-least gender equal country Pakistan is found on the other end of the scale, ranked as the least gender equal country in the world. Conditions for civilians in the North African country have worsened significantly after a civil war broke out in April 2023. Especially girls and women are suffering and have become victims of sexual violence. Moreover, nearly 9 million people are estimated to be at acute risk of famine. The Middle East and North Africa have the largest gender gap Looking at the different world regions, the Middle East and North Africa have the largest gender gap as of 2023, just ahead of South Asia. Moreover, it is estimated that it will take another 152 years before the gender gap in the Middle East and North Africa is closed. On the other hand, Europe has the lowest gender gap in the world.

The research aim was to explore how to promote gender equality using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with a total of 19 respondents, both men and women. The researcher used the information that was collected from interviews and document analysis to evaluate the facts and findings of the study. The researcher used SPSS Version 21 to analyse the data in Section A for the respondents’ biographical data and perceived use of ICTs. The researcher then used NVIVO to transcribe and code data and then used Microsoft Excel to present the data set from which themes were generated to analyse data in Section B and C in order to answer the research questions.

Progress towards gender parity is proceeding at different speeds across geographic areas. As of 2025, North America and Europe had the smallest gender gap at around 75 percent, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean, which has closed 74.5 percent of its gap. At the current rate, it is estimated that gender parity will be achieved in 67 years. The Global Gender Index benchmarks national gender gaps on economic, political, education, and health-based criteria. In 2024, the leading country was Iceland with a score of 0.94.

The Gender Equality Index is a tool to measure the progress of gender equality in the EU, developed by EIGE. It gives more visibility to areas that need improvement and ultimately supports policy makers to design more effective gender equality measures.

The Gender Equality Index has tracked the painfully slow progress of gender equality in the EU since 2010, mostly due to advances in decision-making. While equality is more pronounced in some Member States than in others, it is far from a reality for everyone in every area. Gender norms around care, gender segregation in education and the labour market, and gender inequalities in pay remain pertinent.

The Index allows Member States to easily monitor and compare gender equality progress across various groups of women and men in the EU over time and to understand where improvements are most needed. The 2022 Index has a thematic focus on care in the Covid-19 pandemic. It explores the division of informal childcare, long-term care and housework between women and men.

The Gender Equality Index is a composite indicator. With a total of six core domains (work, money, knowledge, time, power and health) and two satellite domains (violence against women and intersecting inequalities), it offers a synthetic and easy-to-interpret measure for gender equality, indicating how far (or close) the EU and its Member States are from achieving gender equality on a scale of 1 to 100.

Building on previous editions alongside EIGE’s approach to ensuring intersecting inequalities are captured, the Gender Equality Index 2022 continues to show the diverse realities that different groups of women and men face. It examines how elements such as disability, age, level of education, country of birth and family type can intersect with gender and create many different kinds of pathways in people's lives.

Over the past decades, more and more women have entered the labor market around the world. Today, over 40 percent of the global workforce are women. However, only one third are in senior roles, and less than 30 percent work within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The Global Gender Index benchmarks national gender gaps on economic, political, education, and health-based criteria. In 2025, the leading country was Iceland .

Access data, visualizations, and stories that portray results of the IMF's research on gender and economics or create your own charts and analysis. This dataset includes gender inequality and development indices.

For further details, please see https://data.imf.org/?sk=388DFA60-1D26-4ADE-B505-A05A558D9A42&sId=1479329132316

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls : The region has made progress in achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls, particularly in education and health and to a lesser extent women’s participation in formal employment and national policy making. This is attributed to growing awareness of the need to address gender inequalities; While almost all countries in the Pacific have adopted specific gender policies and strategies, the resources for integrating and implementing these priorities are limited. Budgets for national women’s offices are less than one percent of national appropriations; Gender inequality is highlighted by the high prevalence rates of violence against women (more than 60 percent in Melanesia, and more than 40 percent in Polynesia and Micronesia). Sexual and reproductive health and rights issues also remain substantial challenges to be addressed under Goal 5. Fertility rates, especially teenage fertility, remain high in some.

Find more Pacific data on PDH.stat.

India's performance on UNDP's Gender Inequality Index - score, rank, expert analysis and comparison with global peers.

In 2023, Sub-Saharan Africa had the highest child mortality rate worldwide, with 69 children under the age of five deceased per 1,000 live births. The region has the highest poverty rates worldwide. Nevertheless, global child mortality rates have fallen steadily since the millennium.

The Gender Gap Index quantifies the gaps between women and men in four key areas: health, education, economy, and politics. Data is available from 149 countries for select years between 2010-2021. Scores are based on the level of access women have to resources and opportunities relative to men.

The gender wage gap indicator compares the median earnings between male and female workers in Champaign County.

Two worker populations are analyzed: all workers, including part-time and seasonal workers and those that were not employed for the full survey year; and full-time, year-round workers. The gender wage gap is included because it blends economics and equity, and illustrates that a major economic talking point on the national level is just as relevant at the local scale.

For all four populations (male full-time, year-round workers; female full-time, year-round workers; all male workers; and all female workers), the estimated median earnings were higher in 2023 than in 2005. The greatest increase in a population’s estimated median earnings between 2005 and 2023 was for female full-time, year-round workers; the smallest increase between 2005 and 2023 was for all female workers. In both categories (all and full-time, year-round), the estimated median annual earnings for male workers was consistently higher than for female workers.

The gender gap between the two estimates in 2023 was larger for full-time, year-round workers than all workers. For full-time, year-round workers, the difference was $11,863; for all workers, it was approaching $9,700.

The Associated Press wrote this article in October 2024 about how Census Bureau data shows that in 2023 in the United States, the gender wage gap between men and women working full-time widened year-over-year for the first time in 20 years.

Income data was sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) 1-Year Estimates, which are released annually.

As with any datasets that are estimates rather than exact counts, it is important to take into account the margins of error (listed in the column beside each figure) when drawing conclusions from the data.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, instead of providing the standard 1-year data products, the Census Bureau released experimental estimates from the 1-year data in 2020. This includes a limited number of data tables for the nation, states, and the District of Columbia. The Census Bureau states that the 2020 ACS 1-year experimental tables use an experimental estimation methodology and should not be compared with other ACS data. For these reasons, and because data is not available for Champaign County, no data for 2020 is included in this Indicator.

For interested data users, the 2020 ACS 1-Year Experimental data release includes a dataset on Median Earnings in the Past 12 Months (in 2020 Inflation-Adjusted Dollars) by Sex by Work Experience in the Past 12 Months for the Population 16 Years and Over with Earnings in the Past 12 Months.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2023 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S2001; generated by CCRPC staff; using data.census.gov; (16 October 2024).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2022 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S2001; generated by CCRPC staff; using data.census.gov; (20 October 2023).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2021 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S2001; generated by CCRPC staff; using data.census.gov; (21 September 2022).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2019 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S2001; generated by CCRPC staff; using data.census.gov; (7 June 2021).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2018 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S2001; generated by CCRPC staff; using data.census.gov; (7 June 2021).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2017 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S2001; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (13 September 2018).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2016 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S2001; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (13 September 2018).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2015 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S2001; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (13 September 2018).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2014 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S2001; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (13 September 2018).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2013 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S2001; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (13 September 2018).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2012 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S2001; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (13 September 2018).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2011 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S2001; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (13 September 2018).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2010 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S2001; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (13 September 2018).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2009 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S2001; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (13 September 2018).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2008 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S2001; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (13 September 2018).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2007 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S2001; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (13 September 2018).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2006 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S2001; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (13 September 2018).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2005 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S2001; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (13 September 2018).

According to a recent survey, ** percent of the male respondents believed that their respective countries have gone far enough in terms of giving women equal rights with men. This statement was only supported by ** percent of the female respondents. However, female respondents found to a greater extent than male respondents that workplaces treat men and women equally.

Annual gender pay gap estimates for UK employees by age, occupation, industry, full-time and part-time, region and other geographies, and public and private sector. Compiled from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.

The Gender Statistics Database provides a broad overview of statistics on gender as well as information on the various aspects of (in)equality between women and men. These include indicators referred to the EU Strategy for Equality between Women and Men (2010-2015) and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action on Equality.

Moreover, it is possible to access the Gender Equality Index Scores on the same platform. The Index is a composite indicator that measures how far (or close) the EU and its Member States were from achieving complete gender equality in the reference year.

Afghanistan CPIA: Gender Equality Rating: 1=Low To 6=High data was reported at 1.000 NA in 2024. This stayed constant from the previous number of 1.000 NA for 2023. Afghanistan CPIA: Gender Equality Rating: 1=Low To 6=High data is updated yearly, averaging 1.500 NA from Mar 2007 (Median) to 2024, with 17 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 2.000 NA in 2013 and a record low of 1.000 NA in 2024. Afghanistan CPIA: Gender Equality Rating: 1=Low To 6=High data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Afghanistan – Table AF.World Bank.WDI: Governance: Policy and Institutions. Gender equality assesses the extent to which the country has installed institutions and programs to enforce laws and policies that promote equal access for men and women in education, health, the economy, and protection under law.;World Bank Group, CPIA database (http://www.worldbank.org/ida).;Unweighted average;

This record for the Dataset 1 (Interviews & Focus Groups) from the Work Package 2 (Effects of, and Resistances to 'Anti-Gender' Mobilisations Across Europe) of the RESIST Project has been created in the Zenodo open repository, in line with the RESIST Project’s Data Management Plan, and according to the framework of the Open Science principles of the European Union. We followed the accepted gold-standard rule: “as open as possible – as closed as necessarily” to ensure research ethics, integrity, and compliance with the research policies of the EU and the consortium members.

Data gathered during the Work Package 2 (Effects of, and Resistances to 'Anti-Gender' Mobilisations Across Europe) have been classified as SENSITIVE and therefore the dataset will not be available in open access repositories for ten years after the end of the project (that is until 01/10/2036). After 01/10/2036, if certain conditions outlined by the project consortium are met, the dataset will be released publicly on Zenodo.

According to the Gender Inequality Index (GII), Denmark and Norway were the most gender equal countries in the world in 2023, reporting an index of ***** and *****, respectively. The Gender Inequality Index measures inequality between women and men in three dimensions: reproductive health, empowerment, and the labor market. A low GII value indicates low inequality between women and men and vice versa. Yemen was considered the least gender equal country that same year. Gender inequality in the workplace The most prominent source of gender inequality is the workplace, often captured by the gender pay gap. In 2023, women still earned one percent less than their male counterparts with the same qualification and the same job. Women are less represented in senior roles and top management positions, with only one third percent of companies worldwide having a woman in leadership positions. The same situation can be observed in government roles - only 17 out of 195 countries worldwide have ever had a woman in the highest position of executive power. Future outlook Numbers on how long it will take to close gender gaps highly differ between regions. In Europe, it is estimated that it will take around 67 years to achieve equality between the genders. In East Asia and the Pacific, on the other hand, it is projected to take 189 years. New data shows that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased female poverty worldwide and widened the gender poverty gap even further. Heightened female poverty will also negatively impact the Gender Inequality Index (GII).

The so-called “gender-equality paradox” is the fact that gender segregation across occupations is more pronounced in more egalitarian and more developed countries. Some scholars have explained this paradox by the existence of deeply rooted or intrinsic gender differences in preferences that materialize more easily in countries where economic constraints are more limited. In line with a strand of research in sociology, we show instead that it can be explained by cross-country differences in essentialist gender norms regarding math aptitudes and appropriate occupational choices. To this aim, we propose a measure of the prevalence and extent of internalization of the stereotype that “math is not for girls” at the country level. This is done using individual-level data on the math attitudes of 300,000 15-year-old female and male students in 64 countries. The stereotype associating math to men is stronger in more egalitarian and developed countries. It is also strongly associated with various measures of female underrepresentation in math intensive fields and can therefore entirely explain the gender-equality paradox. We suggest that economic development and gender equality in rights go hand-in-hand with a reshaping rather than a suppression of gender norms, with the emergence of new and more horizontal forms of social differentiation across genders.

Abstract

This retrospective report explores global progress and lessons learned over the past 10 years in promoting gender equality. This report takes stock of global progress and considers the impact of evidence-backed solutions to close the most persistent gender gaps. It examines the evolution of World Bank Group’s engagement on gender and highlights promising approaches. Reflections and findings will enable the WBG and its partners to develop a deeper understanding of what works, provide opportunities to strengthen and expand efforts in critical areas, and will inform the new WBG Gender Strategy, to be launched in 2024.

Citation

“World Bank. 2023. Gender Equality in Development: A Ten-Year Retrospective. © Washington, DC: World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/39939 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”

URI

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/39939

WEF's Global Gender Gap Report for India - score, rank, expert analysis and comparison with global peers.