India ranks 131st in Global Gender Gap Index out of 148 countries, and way behind Bangladesh (24th) and even behind Bhutan (119th), Nepal (125th ) and Sri Lanka (130th), a report by World Economic Forum said on Thursday.

“In 2025 India ranks 131st, with an overall gender parity score of 64.4 per cent. Compared to the 2024 edition, India sees a relative drop in rank (-3) due to the performance of other economies,” the report said. However, the economy’s overall performance improves in absolute terms by +0.3 points. One of the dimensions where India increases parity is in Economic Participation and Opportunity, where its score improves by 0.9 percentage points to 40.7 per cent.

The Global Gender Gap Index annually benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions (subindexes): Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. Since launching in 2006, it has been the longest-standing index tracking the progress of numerous countries’ efforts to close these gaps over time.

According to the report, while most indicator values remain the same for India, parity in estimated earned income rises to 29.9 per cent from 28.6 per cent, positively impacting the subindex score. Scores in labour-force participation rate remain the same (45.9 per cent), duplicating India’s highest level achieved to date. In Educational Attainment, India scores 97.1 per cent, reflecting positive shifts in female shares for literacy and tertiary education enrolment, which resulted in positive score improvements for the subindex as a whole.

Further, India also records higher parity in Health and Survival, driven by improved scores in sex ratio at birth and in healthy life expectancy.

However, as in many other countries, parity in this area has been maintained despite an overall decline in life expectancy for both men and women. India, however, has recorded a slight drop in parity (–0.6 points) in the Political Empowerment category since the last edition.

“Female representation in parliament falls from 14.7 per cent to 13.8 per cent in 2025, lowering the indicator score for the second year in a row below 2023 levels. Similarly, the share of women in ministerial roles falls from 6.5 per cent to 5.6 per cent, moving the indicator score (5.9 per cent) further away this year from its highest level (30 per cent, 2019),” the report said.

Top 10 Rankings

Iceland maintains its position as the world’s most gender-equal economy for the 16th consecutive year, with 92.6 per cent of its gender gap closed – the only economy to surpass 90 per cent parity. Finland (87.9 per cent), Norway (86.3 per cent), the UK (83.8 per cent) and New Zealand (82.7 per cent) round out the top five positions. All top 10 economies have closed at least 80 per cent of their gender gaps, the only economies to achieve this milestone. European nations dominate the top 10 rankings with eight positions - Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden have maintained top 10 status since 2006. 

Overall, the global gender gap has closed to 68.8 per cent, marking the strongest annual advancement since the COVID-19 pandemic. “Yet full parity remains 123 years away at current rates,” the report said.

Published on June 12, 2025