The variation in time required to close the gender gap across regions described above, mirrors the current size of gender gap in each geography. Figure 6 provides a snapshot of the current regional average gap closed so far. At a global level, in 2018, four regions have a remaining gender gap of less than 30%—unchanged from last year. Western Europe records a gender gap of 24%, placing it ahead of North America (gap of 27%), Latin America and the Caribbean (gap of 29%), and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (gap of 29%). The East Asia and the Pacific region ranks ahead of Sub-Saharan Africa, with a remaining gender gap of 32% and 34% respectively, while South Asia, with a gap of 34%, ranks ahead of the Middle East and North Africa (gap of 40%). The reader should note that population-weighted group averages are used throughout the report.

As depicted in Figure 7, performances vary considerable within regions as well. The figure reveals, for example, that, despite Western Europe’s relatively high regional average, there is a wide spread of outcomes among the region’s 20 countries. A similarly wide spread of country performance also exists among the 33 countries covered in the Sub-Saharan Africa region. Here, the heterogeneity of outcomes is frequently driven by widely varying performances on the Educational Attainment subindex. In other regions, the largest range of outcomes exists across the Economic Participation and Opportunity and Political Empowerment subindexes, while performance differences across the Educational Attainment and Health and Survival subindexes tend to be comparatively minor. The performance and ranking of the 149 economies assessed in this year’s edition of the report is summarized in Table 3 and Table 4. After discussing the performance of the ten best performers, this section details the regional and country-level results within each region.

Figure 7: Global Gender Gap Index, 2018, by region, income and political grouping

This year’s edition of the Global Gender Gap Index sees one new entrant to its global top 10 list, as well as recording some notable rank changes. The top spots continue to be held by smaller Western European countries, particularly the Nordics, which occupy the top four positions. In addition, the list includes two countries from the East Asia and the Pacific region, one long-established and one new entrant from the Sub-Saharan Africa region, and one country from the Latin America and the Caribbean region. Compared to the world average, Index leaders tend to perform relatively better on Political Empowerment, with all but two also ranking in the top 10 for this subindex. All but three countries in the overall Index top 10 have now crossed the threshold of closing more than 80% of their overall gender gap—the same as last year. For comparison, five countries exceeded 80% in 2016 and 2015.

Iceland (1) completes a full decade in the Index’s top spot this year, and has closed more than 85% of its overall gender gap. It remains the top performer on the Political Empowerment subindex, despite a widening gender gap in the share of women in parliament. Concurrently, for the second year in a row, Iceland’s performance on Economic Participation and Opportunity slides, due to an increased gender gap in the number of women among legislators, senior officials and managers. More positively, it takes the top spot on the wage equality for similar work indicator. Since the first edition of the Index in 2006, Iceland has continuously remained one of the fastest-improving countries in the world, although it is yet to re-surpass its 2015 high mark.

Norway (2), for the second year in a row, comes in second place, having closed more than 83% of its overall gender gap. It continues a multi-year steady improvement on its gender gap regarding the number of women among legislators, senior officials and managers, but also a continued reversal on its previous improvements in wage equality for similar work. In addition, Norway records a slight increase in the share of women in parliament, moving up one spot on the Political Empowerment subindex to third, globally.

Sweden (3), after losing its long-held fourth place last year, regains two places this year, and now ranks third, having closed more than 82% of its overall gender gap. It maintains a strong position on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, due to continued progress on women’s labour force participation, while also making gains on the Political Empowerment subindex, due in part to a narrowing gender gap in women’s share of parliamentary seats. It does relatively less well on the Health and Survival subindex, where it continues to see a small but persistent gender gap in healthy life expectancy.

Finland is fourth this year, having closed more than 82% of its overall gender gap. It records a widening gender gap on Economic Participation and Opportunity, due to a decreasing share of women among legislators, senior officials and managers. However, it is currently the only top-ranked Nordic country with a fully closed gender gap on Educational Attainment.

Nicaragua (5) overtakes Rwanda and rises one place, to fifth. With more than 80% of its overall gender gap closed, it remains the country with the narrowest gender gap in the Latin America and the Caribbean region for the seventh year running. Nicaragua continues to maintain gender parity in ministerial positions and has one of the world’s highest shares of women in parliament, placing the country in second place overall on the Political Empowerment subindex. However, this year it also records a deteriorating performance on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, due to a widening gender gap in the share of women among legislators, senior officials and managers.

Rwanda’s (6) steady multi-year climb since entering the Index comes to a halt for the first time, with the country falling two places due to a widening gender gap on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, driven by a fall in women’s estimated earned income, professional and technical workers, and wage equality for similar work. More positively, it maintains its strong performance on Political Empowerment, remaining the country with the highest share of female parliamentarians in the world (61%), and near-parity in ministerial positions. As of this year, Rwanda has closed more than 80% of its gender gap, its second-highest value recorded by the Index.

New Zealand (7) rises two places, to seventh, due to improvements on the Political Empowerment subindex, on which the country enters the top 10 with a continuingly increased share of women in parliament. It also fully closes its Educational Attainment gender gap for the first time since 2015. Overall, the country has closed more than 80% of its gender gap for the first time since the Index began.

The Philippines (8), the second country from the East Asia and the Pacific region in the top 10, also rises two spots, closing just under 80% of its overall gender gap, the highest value for the country ever recorded by the Index. It manages to narrow its Economic Participation and Opportunity gender gap due to increases in wage equality for similar work and women’s estimated earned income. The country’s Health and Survival gender gap remains open for a second year, although its Educational Attainment gender gap remains fully closed.

Ireland (9) slides one spot—a continued fall from last year—closing more than 79% of its overall gender gap. It records a slight gender gap in enrolment in primary education, thereby re-opening its Educational Attainment gender gap for the first time since 2015. However, the country this year also records an improvement in gender parity on women’s estimated earned income.

Rounding out this year’s top performers, Namibia (10) climbs three spots and newly enters the Index’s global top 10 list for the first time—the second country from the Sub-Saharan Africa region to do so, after Rwanda. It has closed nearly 79% of its overall gender gap, an improvement of more than 10% since the first edition of the Index in 2006. This year, Namibia sees significant advances in women’s share of parliamentary seats, where it ranks fifth globally. Further, its Health and Survival gender gap has remained fully closed since 2013.

With an average remaining gender gap of 31.7%¹⁸, the East Asia and the Pacific region scores in the middle of the range of the Global Gender Gap Index. The region is home to two of the overall Index’s top 10 performers, New Zealand and the Philippines, and both have closed about 80% of their total gender gap—far ahead of the region’s next best-placed country. The lower half of the region’s economies have yet to cross the 70% gender parity threshold.

18

The differences in gender gap size between the highest-ranked and lowest-ranked countries in the region is about 6.5% for Educational Attainment and 6.5% for Health and Survival. To date, only four out of 18 countries in the region have fully closed their Education Attainment gender gap. However, more than half of the countries in the region have closed the gender gap for professional and technical workers, indicating a relatively successful integration of tertiary educated, higher-skilled women into the labour force. The region is also home to three of the five most-improved countries over the past decade on the Health and Survival subindex. However, out of the 18 countries in the region, only Mongolia has fully closed that gap. Across the region, differences in gender parity outcomes are significantly higher on Economic Participation and Opportunity and, in particular, Political Empowerment, with a more than 30% and more than 40% difference in gender gap size between the region’s best and worst performing countries on these dimensions, respectively.

In general, the East Asia and the Pacific region is characterized by relatively high female labour force participation, which translates into a comparatively high regional average on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex. Eleven out of the region’s 18 countries have achieved a level of at least 70% gender parity on Economic Participation and Opportunity, including one—Lao PDR—that has crossed the 90% mark and is the top-ranked country on this subindex. On Political Empowerment, only two out of 18 countries have reached a level of gender parity of more than 40%; a further 11 countries have closed between 10% and 20% of their political gender gap; while five countries have yet to achieve a gender parity level of at least 10%.

In terms of year-on-year progress, out of the 18 countries from the region covered by this year’s Index, 14 countries have increased their overall scores compared to last year, while only four have decreased their overall scores.

New Zealand (7) and The Philippines (8) maintain their overall Index top 10 rankings on the back of strong scores on closing the Political Empowerment gender gap, in particular. Lao PDR (26) takes a leap forward in the rankings due to revised data availability for the country’s estimated earned income; legislators, senior officials and managers; as well as professional and technical workers indicators. This suggests that a much more gender equal situation prevails in the country across these dimensions than previously assumed. In addition, Lao PDR also sees progress on its Educational Attainment gender gap this year, albeit from a low base of educational participation for both men and women.

Australia (39) records a slight widening of its gender gap on legislators, senior officials and managers as well as some reversal of progress on wage equality, resulting in a slight drop in rank. It has closed 73% of its gender gap. Australia is followed by Mongolia (58) which sees an increase in female legislators, senior officials and managers but also an overall drop in female labour force participation.

The next-ranked country is Singapore (67), which records improvements across its entire Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex as well as its first female head of state. Thailand (73) narrows its gender gap across the Educational Attainment subindex and is followed by Viet Nam (77), which sees some small improvements on its Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex. Likewise, Indonesia (85) manages to narrow its economic gender gap this year, but widens its pre-existing one in primary education. Collectively, this group of large ASEAN economies has closed between 69% and 71% of their gender gap so far.

Myanmar (88) moves down several ranks, after entering the Global Gender Gap Index for the first time last year. It nevertheless narrows its gender gap in estimated earned income this year. By contrast, Brunei Darussalam (90) significantly narrows its gender gaps in women’s labour force participation, specifically with regard to legislators, senior officials and managers and professional and technical workers. Cambodia (93) rises several ranks on the back of narrowing gender gaps across Economic Participation and Opportunity and Educational Attainment, specifically with regard to professional and technical workers and basic literacy. Malaysia (101) records greater representation of women in parliament. Both countries rise several ranks and have closed about 68% of their overall gender gaps.

China’s (103) progress towards gender parity has slowed this year. It sees marginal improvements in the share of women in parliament and has fully closed its gender gaps in professional and technical roles and women’s tertiary enrolment, pointing to a positive scenario for the integration of women in the white-collar workforce in China. However, it remains the world’s lowest-ranked country with regard to sex ratio at birth, and its healthy life expectancy gender gap widened again this year, in both relative and absolute terms.

Both Japan (110) and Korea, Rep. (115) climb several spots this year. Japan improves across the entire Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, on the women in parliament indicator—albeit from a low base—and continues a multi-year trend towards near-parity on enrolment in tertiary education, which will ultimately result in the country fully closing its Educational Attainment gender gap for the first time. However, its Health and Survival gender gap is no longer fully closed. Korea likewise sees progress across its Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex and fully closes its secondary education gender gap. All that now separates the country from full gender parity in education is a remaining tertiary enrolment gender gap.

In the Pacific region, Fiji (106) rises several ranks due to a narrowing of its gender gap across the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, having re-entered the Global Gender Gap Index last year.

Timor-Leste (124) takes the bottom spot in the East Asia and the Pacific region. The country has closed its gender gap in primary and secondary education and performs comparatively well with regard to share of female members of parliament, which has improved this year. However, a significant gender gap remains on its Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex.

With an average remaining gap of 29.3% the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region ranks fourth globally, slightly behind Latin America and the Caribbean and about 5% below Western Europe’s regional average. Overall, the performance of countries across the region is somewhat less divergent than in other regions. The gap between the top-ranked countries in the region, Slovenia, Latvia and Bulgaria—which score in the top 20 of the overall Index and have closed 78%, 76% and 76% of their overall gender gap, respectively—and the lowest-ranked countries, Georgia, Hungary and Tajikistan—which have closed 68%, 67% and 64% of their overall gender gap, respectively—is within a range of no more than 10%, with the exception of Tajikistan.

The difference in gender gap size between the highest-ranked and lowest-ranked countries is 5.6% for Educational Attainment and 4% for Health and Survival, with three out of 26 countries—Latvia, Czech Republic and Slovak Republic—fully closing both their Health and Survival and Educational Attainment gender gaps. However, four countries from the region—Georgia, Albania, Azerbaijan and Armenia—remain among the lowest-performing countries in the entire Index on the Health and Survival subindex. Differences in gender parity are significantly higher on the Economic Participation and Opportunity and Political Empowerment subindexes, with a 29% and 32% difference, respectively, in gender gap size between the region’s best- and worst-performing countries. Fourteen of the 26 countries in the region have closed at least 70% of their gender gap on Economic Participation and Opportunity, including two—Belarus and Latvia—that have crossed the 80% mark. In terms of Political Empowerment, 10 of the 26 countries have closed between 20% and 40% of their gender gaps, while 16 countries have only closed less than 20% of their gap.

With regard to year-on-year progress, out of the 26 countries from the region covered by the Index this year, 12 countries have increased their overall scores compared to last year, while 14 have decreased their overall scores.

The highest-ranked country in the region is Slovenia (11), which defends its regional top spot despite slipping out of the Index’s global top 10 due to a widening gender gap in women in parliament as well as wage equality, despite a small improvement in women’s labour force participation.

The second and third spots in the region continue to be held by Latvia (17) and Bulgaria (18). The former rises several spots this year due to progress in women’s labour force participation and wage equality, while the latter’s ranking remains unchanged, balancing progress on closing the gender gap in legislators, senior officials and managers against a decrease in wage equality. Both countries are followed by Lithuania (24), which moves up several places due to progress on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, despite re-opening its gender gap in primary and secondary education, and Belarus (28), which likewise offsets progress on closing its economic gender gap with a slightly wider gender gap in education.

Estonia (33), Albania (34), Moldova (35) and Serbia (38) form a cluster around an overall gender parity level of 73%. Estonia recovers part of last year’s lost ground due to improvements on the Political Empowerment subindex, while Albania and Serbia also improve due to narrower gender gaps in labour force participation and, in the case of Serbia, Political Empowerment. Moldova actually moves down five ranks, driven by a reversal of progress in gender parity among legislators, senior officials and managers. Poland’s performance (42) remains essentially stable, balancing a slightly wider gender gap in primary education with modest improvements in Economic Participation and Opportunity.

Croatia (59), Kazakhstan (60), Bosnia and Herzegovina (62) and Romania (63) are nearly tied, having closed slightly more than 71% of their overall gender gaps. Among this group, only Bosnia and Herzegovina advances in the ranking, due to improved gender parity on the Health and Survival, Political Empowerment and Economic Participation and Opportunity subindexes. Croatia and Romania both move down several places despite small improvements across a range of dimensions, whereas Kazakhstan sees a widening of its gender gap in women’s labour force participation.

Ukraine (65), Macedonia, FYR (66) and Montenegro (69) follow closely. Despite narrowing its gender gap in estimated earned income and legislators, senior officials and managers, Ukraine sees itself overtaken by a number of faster-rising countries this year. Macedonia, FYR records a significant improvement in women’s representation in parliament, while Montenegro rises several ranks on the back of narrowing its gender gaps on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex and in healthy life expectancy.

The Russian Federation (75) fully closes its gender gap in secondary education this year and sees improvements in wage equality and women’s share of legislators, senior officials and managers. However, other countries’ faster progress on the Political Empowerment subindex, in particular, means the country has moved down a few ranks.

The Czech Republic (82), Slovak Republic (83) and Kyrgyz Republic (86) are almost tied at having closed slightly more than 69% of their overall gender gap. Among them, the two neighbouring countries are moving in opposite directions. On the one hand, Czech Republic gains several places due to a reduced wage gap and an increase in women’s representation in parliament; on the other, Slovak Republic moves down several ranks due to a widening gender gap in representation of women among legislators, senior officials and managers. By contrast, the Kyrgyz Republic remains stable, with few significant changes in performance this year.

At the lower ranks of the regional table, Azerbaijan (97) and Armenia (98) both see improvements in closing their education gender gap, despite remaining among the worst-performing countries globally on the Health and Survival subindex. In particular, they record some of the lowest female-to-male sex ratios at birth in the world, just above China’s. They are followed closely by Georgia (99)—which also improves on Educational Attainment, yet reverses previous gains in wage equality and women’s share of senior leadership positions—and Hungary (102), which sees a slight uptick of women in parliament despite remaining the region’s, and one of the world’s, lowest-performing countries with regard to closing the Political Empowerment gender gap. Tajikistan (123) takes this year’s bottom spot in the region, slipping 28 places due to a widening Economic Participation and Opportunity gender gap, driven by updated data availability regarding women’s share of legislators, senior officials, and managers as well as labour force participation and estimated earned income.

With an average remaining gender gap of 29.2%, Latin America and the Caribbean is the third-highest ranked region in this year’s Index, behind Western Europe and North America, and slightly ahead of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The region is home to some of the fastest-improving countries in the world since 2006—including Nicaragua, which continues to lead the regional rankings with more than 80% of its gender gap closed—while the lowest-ranked countries in the region, Guatemala and Belize, have closed 67% and 66% of their overall gender gap, respectively.

The difference in gender gap size between the highest-ranked and lowest-ranked countries in the region is about 3.2% on Educational Attainment and less than 1% on Health and Survival, with six out of 24 countries fully closing their gender gap in education and 12 out of 24 countries fully closing their gender gap in health. Three countries—Bahamas, Colombia and Brazil—have fully closed both these gaps this year. Regional differences in gender parity are significantly higher on Economic Participation and Opportunity and, in particular, Political Empowerment, with, respectively, 30% and 54% differences in gender gaps between the region’s best- and worst-performingcountries. Four out of the 24 countries have closed at least 70% of their gender gap on Economic Participation and Opportunity. Two of these—Barbados and Bahamas—have crossed the 80% mark and are in the Index’s global top 5 on this subindex. On Political Empowerment, three of the 24 countries have closed the gender gap by more than 40%, a further ten countries have closed between 20% and 40% of their gender gap, while in 11 countries less than 20% of the gap has been closed.

In terms of year-on-year progress, out of the 24 countries from the region covered by the Index this year, 15 countries have increased their overall scores compared to last year, while nine have decreased their overall scores.

Nicaragua (5) rises one spot in the global top 10 and remains the highest-ranked country in the region for the seventh year in a row. Barbados (21) remains among the best-performing countries in the region and the world on closing the Economic Participation and Opportunity gender gap, despite a slight widening of the gender gap in legislators, senior officials and managers. It continues to take the top spot among the Caribbean nations, followed by the Bahamas (30)—which moves down several ranks due to a widening gender gap in labour force participation—and Jamaica (44), which sees progress on closing its gender gap in healthy life expectancy.

Costa Rica (22) moves up 19 places, largely driven by a significant increase in women in parliament, moving the country into the global top 10 on this indicator. Further, it fully closes its Educational Attainment gender gap. Similarly, Cuba (23) fully closes its gender gap in women in parliament. However, it continues to rank among the lowest countries in the region on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, with insufficient data available to calculate its performance on the estimated earned income indicator. Meanwhile, Bolivia (25) drops out of the global Index top 20 due to a widening gender gap in labour force participation. It, too, remains one of the countries in the world with full gender parity in women in parliament. However, it remains one of the two worst-performing countries in the region on Educational Attainment.

Argentina (36) and Colombia (40) remain the most gender-equal countries among the Latin America and the Caribbean region’s large economies—but both move down several ranks this year. Argentina nevertheless sees a slight increase in gender parity in estimated earned income and legislators, senior officials and managers, whereas Colombia fully closes its Educational Attainment gender gap but also records a wider gender gap in wage equality.

Mexico (50) and Chile (54) follow suit, both climbing several ranks on the back of having closed 72% of their gaps, both countries’ highest-recorded performances by the Index to date. Mexico shows improvement across all four subindexes, reversing last year’s downward trend, with particularly strong progress in gender parity in women in parliament as well as healthy life expectancy. Chile, meanwhile, continues to make steady progress across the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, although it continues to rank among the region’s lower-placed countries on this subindex. Progress is also evident on Political Empowerment, with an increased share of women in parliament. Peru’s (52) overall performance remains largely stable this year, with a narrower gender gap in labour force participation and among professional and technical workers, offset by a wider gap in legislators, senior officials and managers. Further, Peru retains one of the wider Educational Attainment gender gaps in the region.

Ecuador (41) and Uruguay (56) both see some improvement this year, driven by progress across several indicators within the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex. Meanwhile, Panama’s (45) gender parity performance remains largely stable, with small improvements on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex offset by a slightly widening gender gap in primary education.

Venezuela (64) records progress in wage equality for similar work but continues to exhibit a gender gap in primary education. By contrast, Honduras (68) sees a widening gender gap in women in parliament, offsetting modest progress in labour force participation. Both the Dominican Republic (74) and Suriname (79) exhibit some improvement in gender parity on legislators, senior officials and managers as well as primary education, for the former, and labour force participation, for the latter. Conversely, El Salvador (87) experiences a notably strong decrease on legislators, senior officials and managers.

Brazil (95) sees a significant reversal in progress towards gender parity this year—with its overall gender gap standing at its widest point since 2011, largely driven by the country’s Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex. However, both its Health and Survival and Educational Attainment gender gaps remain fully closed.

Paraguay (104), Guatemala (107) and Belize (111) make up the bottom ranks of the Latin America and the Caribbean region.

The Middle East and North Africa region continues its progress from last year, with a remaining overall gender gap of less than 40% for a third consecutive year. However, the region continues to rank last globally on the overall Index, behind South Asia. On Economic Participation and Opportunity, it ranks ahead only of South Asia. On Educational Attainment, it ranks ahead of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, and on Health and Survival it surpasses South Asia and East Asia and the Pacific. Still, across the region only one country has fully closed its gender gap on, respectively, Educational Attainment and Health and Survival. Overall, the performance of countries across the region is somewhat more divergent than in other world regions. In addition to Israel, which maintains a remaining overall gender gap of 28%, the region’s best-performing countries this year are Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, having closed 65%, 64% and 63%, respectively, of their overall gender gaps. The lower end of the regional table is made up of Syria, Iraq and Yemen, which have closed 57%, 55% and 50% of their overall gender gaps, respectively.

The difference in gender gap size between the region’s best-performing and lowest-performing countries is a substantial 28% for the Educational Attainment subindex and more than 2% for Health and Survival. Differences in gender parity are similarly high on Economic Participation and Opportunity and on Political Empowerment, with an average 32% and 20% difference, respectively, in gender gap size between the region’s best- and worst-performing countries. Only four of the region’s 19 countries have managed to close at least 50% of their gender gaps on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, whereas a further nine countries have closed between 40% and 50% of their economic gender gap, and another six countries have closed less than 40%. With regard to Political Empowerment, only two countries—Israel and Tunisia—have closed more than 20% of their gender gap, while 11 countries are yet to cross the 10% gender parity threshold. Four out of the world’s five lowest-ranking countries on this subindex belong to the region.

In terms of year-on-year progress, out of the 19 countries from the region covered by the Index this year, 10 have increased their overall scores compared to last year, while seven have decreased their overall scores. One country—Oman—re-enters the Index this year, and another country—Iraq—joins the Index for the first time.

Israel (46) remains the top performer in the region, recording modest improvements on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, driven by an increased share of women legislators, senior officials and managers. It is followed by Tunisia (119), which experiences a widening gender gap in wage equality and healthy life expectancy. Despite this setback, it also has seen the region’s strongest improvement on the Health and Survival subindex over the past decade. The United Arab Emirates (121) sees a reduction of the gap with regard to legislators, senior officials and managers and healthy life expectancy, counterbalanced by a widening gender gap in wage equality.

Kuwait (126) records notable narrowing of gender gaps in professional and technical workers, moving the country up several ranks. However, Kuwait also sees a widening gender gap in healthy life expectancy. The country is followed by Qatar (127), which also improves by several ranks and marks progress on the share of women parliamentarians, rising from no women in parliament to nearly 10% women. It also narrows its gender gap in labour force participation. However, the overall impact of these achievements is tempered by a decline in wage equality and gender parity in estimated earned income, highlighting the country’s continued economic gender gap.

Algeria’s (128) performance remains largely stable, due to a narrowing gender gap in professional and technical workers that is counterbalanced by a widening Health and Survival gender gap. Meanwhile, Turkey (130) sees progress on closing its gender gap in labour force participation as well as professional and technical roles. However, it also experiences a worsening of wage equality for similar work. In addition, it improves its share of women in parliament.

Bahrain (132) records a widening gender gap in estimated earned income for the second year in a row, while simultaneously narrowing its gender gap in professional and technical workers. Similarly, Mauritania (136) experiences a decline in wage equality and a widening gender gap in women in parliament. Egypt (135) continues its steady improvement on the Educational Attainment subindex—due to smaller gender gaps in literacy and tertiary education—as well as progress on gender parity in professional and technical workers. A similar positive trend is observable for Morocco (137), which sees continued progress on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, driven by increased wage equality. It also continues to improve on the Educational Attainment subindex, mostly due to increased gender parity in secondary education.

Another cluster of countries consists of Jordan (138), Oman (139) and Lebanon (140). The overall performances of Jordan and Lebanon remain largely unchanged, despite Lebanon’s minimal progress on the ratio of women in parliament. Oman re-enters the Index this year, with a larger gender gap than previously recorded in 2016, mostly due to a wider gap on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex.

Saudi Arabia (141) marks improvements in wage equality and women’s labour force participation, as well as a smaller gender gap in secondary and tertiary education. Iran, Islamic Rep. (142) likewise maintains steady, modest progress on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex—albeit from a low base—due to an increase in the share of women in professional and technical roles. The Middle East and North Africa regional ranking is completed by Syria (146), Iraq (147) and Yemen (149).

With an average remaining gender gap of 27.5%, North America is one of the regions making the most progress towards gender parity overall. However, while both countries in the region have closed more than 70% of their overall gender gap, their paths have diverged markedly since 2015, when their scores and ranks were practically tied.

Canada (16) maintains the same Index rank this year, defending its top spot in the region as well as its position in the global top 20 on the overall Index, with modest improvements across a range of gender parity indicators. The country’s gender gap on the Educational Attainment subindex remains fully closed since 2013, although its Health and Survival gender gap remains open. Currently, Canada has closed just over 77% of its overall gender gap, an increase of 3% since 2015.

The United States (51) moves down two spots compared to last year. It records some modest improvements on the Economic Opportunity and Participation subindex—particularly with regard to wage equality for similar work—but a directional reversal in education and virtually no change on the Political Empowerment subindex, which stands at its lowest level since 2007, due, in particular, to a significant decrease in gender parity in ministerial level positions. More positively, the United States continues to rank in the global Index top 20 on the Economic Opportunity and Participation subindex, highlighting the substantial potential of the country’s next-generation female workforce. Currently, the United States has closed exactly 72% of its overall gender gap, a decrease of 2% since 2015.

With an average remaining gender gap of 34.2%, South Asia is the second-lowest scoring region on this year’s Global Gender Gap Index, ahead of the Middle East and North Africa and behind Sub-Saharan Africa. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are the top-ranked countries in the region, having closed just over 72% and nearly 68% of their overall gender gap, respectively, while the lowest-ranked countries are Bhutan and Pakistan, having closed just under 64% and 55% of their overall gender gap, respectively. With the exception of Bangladesh and Pakistan at either end of South Asia’s regional table, gender parity outcomes are somewhat homogenous across the region.

The difference in gender gap size between the highest-ranked and lowest-ranked countries in the region is about 10% for the Educational Attainment subindex and about 4% for Health and Survival. Only one country in the region, Maldives, has fully closed its Educational Attainment gender gap, and only one country, Sri Lanka, has fully closed its Health and Survival gender gap. Variance in gender parity outcomes is somewhat higher within the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, and even more so for the Political Empowerment subindex; there is a 30% and a nearly 50% difference, respectively, in gender gap size between the region’s best- and worst-performing countries on these subindexes. Three of the seven countries have achieved a level of at least 60% gender parity on Economic Participation and Opportunity. On Political Empowerment, one country—Bangladesh—has reached a level of gender parity of more than 50%, while India has closed nearly 40% of its gender gap on this subindex. The region’s remaining countries have yet to achieve a gender parity level of at least 20%. It is worth noting that, from a low base, South Asia has made the fastest progress on closing its gender gap of any world region over the past decade.

In terms of year-on-year progress, out of the seven countries from the region covered by the Index this year, four countries have increased their overall scores compared to last year, while three have decreased their overall scores.

Bangladesh (48) consolidates its position as the region’s top performer and breaks into the global Index top 5 on the Political Empowerment subindex this year, recording progress on closing its political gender gap, despite a widening gender gap in terms of labour force participation. It is followed by Sri Lanka (100), which rises several ranks due to improvements on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, specifically narrowing its gender gap on labour force participation. The country also moves closer toward fully closing its Educational Attainment gender gap, having already fully closed the gap on the Health and Survival subindex.

The next-ranked country is Nepal (105), which rises several spots due to narrowing its gender gap in labour force participation as well as greater representation of women in parliament. It also manages to keep its gender gap in enrolment in tertiary education fully closed for the second year running.

India (108) maintains a stable ranking this year but its gap is directionally larger this year with a 33% gap yet to be bridged. The country records improvements in wage equality for similar work, succeeds in fully closing its tertiary education gender gap for the first time, and keeps primary and secondary education gaps closed for the third year running. However, it continues to rank third-lowest in the world on Health and Survival, remaining the world’s least-improved country on this subindex over the past decade. In fact, India actually widens the gender gap on this subindex this year.

The Maldives (113) records a somewhat larger-than-before gender gap in labour force participation, due to updated data availability, which has led to a fall in ranking despite counterbalancing positive developments such as greater gender parity on estimated earned income and in the share of legislators, senior officials and managers. Bhutan (122), by contrast, experiences modest improvements in gender parity in healthy life expectancy but a slight reversal of its gender gap in labour force participation.

South Asia’s regional ranking is completed by Pakistan (148), which makes some good progress this year in wage equality as well as on the Educational Attainment subindex. However, this progress is insufficiently rapid to avoid the country being overtaken by a number of faster-improving countries at the lower end of the Index’s global rankings.

With an average remaining gap of 33.7%, Sub-Saharan Africa records the third-largest gender gap among the eight regions in this year’s Index, behind the East Asia and the Pacific region and ahead of South Asia. After making progress on closing its gender gap for six consecutive years, the region’s gender gap has started to widen again. Sub-Saharan Africa is characterized by a higher variance in gender gap outcomes than practically any other world region. Rwanda and Namibia rank in the global Index top 10—having closed 80% and 79% of their gender gaps, respectively—while the lowest-ranked countries in the region, Congo DRC (covered by the Index for the first time this year) and Chad, have yet to close more than 40% of their overall gender gaps.

This high variance can partly be explained by high diversity in outcomes on the Educational Attainment subindex, with a more than 40% difference in gender gap size between the highest-ranked and lowest-ranked countries—much higher than for any other region, despite significant improvements over the past decade. While a gap of only 2% separates the highest-ranked and lowest-ranked countries on the Health and Survival subindex—where the region has improved more than any other over the past decade—in some cases, this relative parity masks continued unsatisfactory health outcomes for both men and women alike. Nevertheless, two countries from the region—Botswana and Lesotho—have fully closed both their Educational Attainment and Health and Survival gender gaps.

The Sub-Saharan Africa region is characterized by high female labour force participation, which translates into a comparatively high regional average on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex. The top six countries on this subindex—Benin, Burundi, Guinea, Cameroon, Namibia and Botswana—have closed more than 80% of their gaps and rank in the global Index top 20 for this dimension, while only the four bottom-ranked countries have not yet closed at least 60% of their economic gender gap. On the Political Empowerment subindex, the difference between the highest-performing and lowest-performing countries is once again significant: Rwanda, South Africa and Namibia have closed 54%, 40% and 38%, respectively, of their gender gaps, placing them in the global Index top 20. A further eight out of 33 countries score in the 20% to 35% range, while the remaining 22 countries have not yet closed 20% of their gap on this subindex.

In terms of year-on-year progress, out of the 33 countries from the region covered by the Index this year, 12 countries have increased their overall scores compared to last year, while 18 have seen decreasing scores. Three countries—Congo, DR; Sierra Leone and Togo—make an appearance in the Index for the first time this year due to improved data availability.

Rwanda (6) remains the region’s top performer, despite moving down two ranks this year due to some reversal in progress on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex. It is joined in the global Index top 10 by Namibia (10), which manages to narrow its Political Empowerment gender gap due to an increased share of women in parliament. South Africa (19) also registers some progress on the Political Empowerment subindex, despite a slight decline in wage equality.

The fourth-ranked country in the region, Burundi (31), loses nine places this year. Despite having closed its gender gap in primary and secondary education and healthy life expectancy, newly available data reveals a wider-than-before gender gap in legislators, senior officials and managers as well as professional and technical workers, driving most of the change in its overall performance. Uganda (43) gains several ranks due to progress in healthy life expectancy and women in senior and managerial positions.

Both Zimbabwe (47) and Mozambique (49) have closed 72% of their overall gender gaps; however, they arrive at this outcome from opposite paths. Whereas Zimbabwe registers progress in wage equality and gender parity in estimated earned income, Mozambique moves down 20 spots due to reversed progress in women’s labour force participation and a larger-than-before gender gap in women in senior and managerial positions, revealed by newly available data. Similarly, Botswana (55) and Cameroon (57) arrive at similar Index scores via opposite trends. Whereas Botswana moves down several places due to a widening labour force participation gap, Cameroon climbs 30 spots due to improved parity in estimated earned income and newly available data on gender parity in senior and managerial positions.

Tanzania (71) slightly narrows its gender gap across a range of indicators in all four subindexes, whereas Cape Verde (72) makes progress on Economic Participation and Opportunity as well as gender parity in healthy life expectancy. It is followed by Kenya (76), which sees modest improvements in its share of women in parliament this year.

A cluster of four countries—Eswatini (80), Lesotho (81), Madagascar (84) and Ghana (89)—share a similar level of gender parity outcomes, with each having closed about 69% of their overall gender gaps. However, their underlying trends this year diverge significantly. Eswatini narrows its gender gap on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, where it attains gender parity in professional and technical roles. Lesotho and Madagascar both slip several ranks due to stagnant progress on wage equality, while Ghana sees a reversal of past progress on gender parity in estimated earned income and legislators, senior officials and managers. They are followed by Senegal (94), which likewise widens its gender gap in legislators, senior officials and managers, and Liberia (96), which rises several places due to progress in women’s labour force participation and wage equality.

With about 66% of their overall gender gaps closed, Mauritius (109), Malawi (112), Sierra Leone (114), Guinea (116) and Ethiopia (117) are clustered around a similar score. Out of this group, Mauritius is the only country recording progress this year, due to closing some of its gender gap on the Political Empowerment subindex. Malawi and Guinea move down several places due to wider economic gender gaps, while Ethiopia’s score remains virtually unchanged from last year. Sierra Leone is a new addition to the index this year. It is close to achieving full gender parity with regard to labour force participation, primary education and healthy life expectancy, but lags when it comes to several other indicators.

Benin (118) narrows its gender gap in healthy life expectancy, whereas Gambia (120) records a widening gender gap on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex. Angola (125) registers a decrease in the share of women in parliament and wider gaps in education, counterbalancing progress on Economic Participation and Opportunity as well as healthy life expectancy. While Burkina Faso (129) moves down several ranks, Côte d’Ivoire (131) sees improvements in wage equality, women’s labour force participation and healthy life expectancy.

Nigeria (133) continues last year’s downward trend, falling several ranks this year. While this is partially due to newly available data revealing a larger-than-before gender gap among legislators, senior officials and managers, the country also sees some reversal of past progress on Educational Attainment and in healthy life expectancy. It places ahead of the newly-ranked Togo (134), which records significant gender gaps across the Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment and Political Empowerment subindexes.

Mali (143), Congo, DR (144) and Chad (145) complete this year’s Sub-Saharan regional rankings, with gender parity scores of about 58%. Congo enters the ranking 6th to last, with particularly low parity across all indicators on the Educational Attainment and Political Empowerment subindexes, while Chad, the lowest-ranked country in the region, shows encouragingly better gender parity on the Economic Participation, Educational Attainment and Political Empowerment subindexes, but registers larger gender gaps on life expectancy indicators.

With an average overall gender gap of 24.2%, Western Europe remains the highest-performing region in the Index in 2018. It is home to four of the top five countries in the Index—Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland—highlighting the continued leadership of the Nordic countries with regard to gender parity outcomes. However, Western Europe is also one of the regions with wide observed performance variation. At the bottom ranks of the region, three countries have a remaining gender gap of more than 30%: Greece, Malta and Cyprus. The difference in gender gap size between the highest-ranked and lowest-ranked countries in the region is about 3.4% for Educational Attainment and just over 1% for Health and Survival, with seven of the 20 countries fully closing their gender gaps on education indicators. However, once again this year, no country in the region has managed to fully close its Health and Survival gender gap.

As in other regions, gender parity levels in countries across Western Europe are particularly uneven with regard to the Economic Participation and Opportunity and Political Empowerment subindexes; there are, respectively, 20% and over 50% differences in gender gap size between the region’s best and worst performers. Eleven of the region’s 20 countries have achieved a gender parity level of at least 70% on Economic Participation and Opportunity, including two—Sweden and Norway—that have crossed the 80% mark. On Political Empowerment, four countries have reached a gender parity level of more than 50%, and eight countries have closed between 30% and 50% of their gender gaps (although eight countries have yet to close at least 30% of their gender gaps on this subindex). Nine of the global Index top 20 performers on this subindex are from this region.

In terms of year-on-year progress, out of the 20 countries from the region covered by the Index this year, 14 have increased their overall scores compared to last year, while six have recorded lower scores.

Iceland (1), Norway (2), Sweden (3) and Finland (4) defend their top-ranked positions in the Index on the back of their sustained progress on the Political Empowerment subindex and continued strong performance on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex. However, the Index’s estimated earned income scale reveals that in the Nordic countries, as elsewhere, additional efforts will continue to be needed to achieve full wage equality and fully close the gender gap in income. Ireland (9) likewise maintains its global top 10 position, with a marked improvement in closing the gender gap in estimated earned income.

France (12) records some improvements this year—particularly with regard to Political Empowerment, due to increased gender parity in the composition of the country’s parliamentarians and a more narrow gender gap in women’s estimated earned income. However, France remains in the bottom half of the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex ranking for the region. Its score is practically tied with next-placed Denmark (13), which also sees modest improvements this year, driven by an improvement in closing the gender gap on estimated earned income. Both countries have closed about 78% of their overall gender gap.

By contrast, Germany (14) experiences some reversal of recent progress, moving down two spots due to a widening gender gap in women in parliament. In addition, its gender gap on Educational Attainment remains open; Germany ranks last in the Western Europe region on this subindex. The United Kingdom (15) this year records a very similar overall level of gender parity to Germany’s, driven by improvements on the Political Empowerment subindex.

Switzerland’s (20) performance remains stable compared to 2017, with some progress on the Political Empowerment subindex that is counterbalanced by some widening of the gender gap on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex.

The Netherlands (27), Spain (29), Belgium (32) and Portugal (37) rank in the bottom half of the Western Europe region. Spain and Portugal both record very similar overall gender parity outcomes to last year: Spain improves slightly on the Economic Opportunity and Participation subindex, and Portugal ranks higher on healthy life expectancy. Meanwhile, Belgium and the Netherlands move in opposite directions. On the one hand, the Netherlands makes progress on closing its gender gap on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex—the estimated earned income gap in particular—while Belgium experiences a widening gender gap in wage equality and healthy life expectancy.

Austria (53) and Luxembourg (61) both make some progress on closing their overall gender gap. Austria sees an increased share of women in parliament and Luxembourg achieves greater parity on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex.

Italy (70) improves its score and once more manages to close more than 70% of its overall gender gaps. This is attributable to a greater share of women parliamentarians, improvements on wage equality for similar work, and a further closing of the country’s gender gap in estimated earned income. Greece (78), similarly, manages to increase its share of female legislators, senior officials and managers. The Western Europe regional table is completed by Malta (91) and Cyprus (92), the latter of which this year sees a widening gender gap among the number legislators, senior officials and managers, whereas the former reduces its gender gap in labour force participation.

The distribution of performances across G20 countries is provided in Figure 7 (page 19) Currently, among the G20 group of countries, France (12) is the nation with the highest progress towards gender parity, followed by Germany (14), the United Kingdom (15), Canada (16), South Africa (19) and Argentina (36). Saudi Arabia (141), Turkey (130) and Korea, Rep. (115) make up the lower ranks of the group. With an (unweighted) average gender parity score of 69.4% for the G20 as a whole, 11 of the G20 countries have closed between 80% and 70% of their overall gender gaps, seven score in the 70% to 60% range, and one country has yet to close more than 60% of its gap. However, progress among G20 countries has turned directionally negative, on average, this year. Improvements in Mexico and Italy have been counterbalanced by directionally larger gaps in some of the largest G20 countries including Brazil, China, India and South Africa. Despite this year’s step backward the G20 continues to place efforts to promote gender parity high on its agenda including, most recently, through its Business Women Leaders Task Force.¹