The global gender gap has closed to 68.8%, marking the strongest annual advancement since the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet full parity remains 123 years away at current rates, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2025. Iceland leads the rankings, followed by Finland, Norway, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand.
The latest edition of the report, which covers 148 economies, reveals both encouraging momentum and persistent structural barriers facing women worldwide. 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%. However, despite women representing 41.2% of the global workforce, a stark leadership gap persists with women holding only 28.8% of top leadership positions.
“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,” says Saadia Zahidi, managing director of the World Economic Forum. “The evidence is clear. Economies that have made decisive progress towards parity are positioning themselves for stronger, more innovative and more resilient economic progress.”
Iceland maintains its positions as the world’s most gender-equal economy, with 92.6% of its gender gap closed—the only economy to surpass 90% parity. Finland (87.9%), Norway (86.3%), the UK (83.3%), and New Zealand (82.7%) round out the top five positions. 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, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Moldova, Germany, and Ireland. The United States of America is ranked at No. 42 globally.
The index looks only at gender gaps in outcomes and not at the overall levels of resources and opportunities in a country. It finds 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 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.
North America leads 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. Europe ranks second with a gender parity score of 75.1%, having closed 6.3 percentage points of its overall gap since 2006. European economies continue to lead the overall rankings. Latin America and the Caribbean stands out as the region with the fastest rate of progress, ranking third with a score of 74.%% and having advanced 8.6 percentage points since 2006. Central Asia places fourth with a score of 69.8%, with Armenia (73.1%) and Georgia (72.9%) taking the lead as the region’s top performers. Eastern Asia and the Pacific ranks fifth with a score of 69.4%, with New Zealand (82.7%), Australia (79.2%), and the Philippines (78.1%) leading the region. Sub-Saharan Africa ranks sixth with a score of 68%. Southern Asia ranks seventh with a score of 64.6%. Middle East and Northern Africa ranks eighth with a score of 61.7%.
Based on the collective speed of progress of 100 economies covered continuously since 2006, it will 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.
However, the fastest-moving economies demonstrate that rapid acceleration is possible when gender parity becomes a national priority. The economies that have proved most successful at bridging their gender gaps across each income group include Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Ecuador, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia.
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. This underutilization of human capital represents both a systemic inefficiency and a missed economic opportunity.
“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,” says Sue Duke, global head of public policy at LinkedIn. “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.”
