India Slips to 131 in Global Gender Gap Report 2025, Among Lowest in South Asia

13 June, 2025:

India has dropped two places to the 131st position out of 148 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2025, reflecting persistent gaps in gender parity across key sectors like politics, health, education, and the workforce.

India’s gender parity score stands at just 64.1 per cent, placing it among the lowest-ranked countries in the South Asian region, according to the report released on Thursday. In the 2024 edition of the report, India was ranked 129.

The World Economic Forum’s 19th Global Gender Gap Report, released in 2025, shows that the world has made its strongest progress towards gender equality since the COVID-19 pandemic. Covering 148 countries, the report finds that the global gender gap now stands at 68.8%. While there’s clear momentum, parity has improved across all key dimensions in 2024, with gains in 11 out of 14 indicators, true equality remains a distant goal. Not a single country has achieved full gender parity yet.

The Global Gender Gap Index is released annually by the WEF. It was first introduced in 2006 to benchmark the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. The index lies between 0 and 1, with 1 denoting complete parity. The gender gap is the distance from full parity.

As per “Among the 148 economies covered in the 2025 index, the Health and Survival gender gap has closed by 96.2%, the Educational Attainment gap by 95.1%, the Economic Participation and Opportunity gap by 61.0%, and the Political Empowerment gap by 22.9%.” Women represent 41.2 per cent of the global workforce, but a stark gap persists with women only holding 28.8 per cent of top leadership positions, as noted in the report.

 Iceland retains the world’s most gender-equal economy for the 16th consecutive year, closing 92.6% of the gender gap – the only economy to reach 90% parity- followed by Finland, Norway, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. Bangladesh emerged as the best performer in South Asia, jumping 75 ranks to rank 24 globally. Nepal ranked 125, Sri Lanka 130, Bhutan 119, Maldives 13,8 and Pakistan 148.

Globally, the average gender gap has narrowed to 68.8%, marking the fastest annual improvement since the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, the report warns that at the current rate, full gender parity will not be achieved for another 123 years. The data reveals a persistent global challenge: while women constitute 41.2% of the workforce, they occupy only 28.8% of senior leadership roles.