Nordics Lead the Most Gender-Equal Countries List
Iceland has once more been crowned as the most gender-equal country in the world. This is according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2025, released earlier this month. Four of the Nordics, also including Finland (rank 2), Norway (3) and Sweden (6), made it into the top 6 this year, having held leading positions since the list started in 2006.
European economies have filled most of the top 10 spots over the years, with Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Moldova, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom having each featured at least once in the past 19 years.
Several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa also stand in the top roundup, including South Africa (rank 6) in 2009 and Lesotho (rank 10 in 2009, 8 in 2010, 9 in 2011). Rwanda has scored highly in multiple years, rising to 4th position in 2017 and most recently, placing in 6th position in 2022. This is partly due to the fact that Rwanda has achieved full parliamentary parity - a feat few nations worldwide have managed. Namibia joined the top 10 in 2018, before it rose to 6th place in 2021 and has maintained 8th position since 2022.
New Zealand and the Philippines are the two countries in Eastern Asia and the Pacific to have appeared fairly consistently in the top 10 throughout the Gender Gap Report’s history, while in Latin America and the Caribbean, Nicaragua is the sole high performing country. Notably, the regions of Central Asia, Southern Asia, North America and the Middle East and Northern Africa are underrepresented here.
In 2025, Bangladesh was the country to record the most significant improvement in ranking, up 75 places to rank 24. It was followed by Benin (+21, 113rd), Dominican Republic (+21, 61st) and Mongolia (+20, 65th). Togo (-44, 121st), Sierra Leone (-32, 112nd) and North Macedonia (-32, 90th) experience the largest declines in ranking.
The Gender Gap Index is a means to benchmark gender parity across four dimensions: economic opportunities, educational, health and political leadership. The level of progress toward gender parity is calculated as the ratio of the value of each indicator for women to the value for men, with a parity score of 1 indicating full parity. The index also expresses progress toward gender parity as a percentage.