Overview

The Global Gender Gap Report is an annual benchmark series published by the World Economic Forum. Since its inception in 2006, the series has provided a longitudinal assessment of global progress towards gender parity, tracking how gaps between women and men evolve over time. The series evaluates a large cohort of economies—reaching 145 in recent years—including a core group of 97 economies that have been monitored consistently for two decades. By providing a stable record of global, regional, and economy-level performance, the library of reports serves as a primary resource for understanding the trajectory of gender equality across the globe.

Scope and latest findings

Each edition in the series, including the 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2026 editions held in this library, measures gender gaps across four primary dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. The latest 2026 edition marks the 20th anniversary of the series, providing a comprehensive look at the state of parity across 145 economies. It highlights the persistent challenges in closing gaps in economic and political spheres while noting more advanced progress in health and education. The recent data also incorporates specific analysis of emerging transformations, such as the impact of artificial intelligence on the workforce and the role of gender parity in climate change transitions.

Purpose

This benchmark series is designed to help leaders in government and business focus their efforts on advancing gender parity. The underlying premise of the research is that economies hinder their own competitiveness and growth potential if they fail to invest in the full breadth of their human capital. By creating visibility and enabling cross-country comparisons, the reports identify where progress is accelerating and where stagnation requires urgent intervention. The series provides objective, data-driven insights intended to inform policy reforms, workplace improvements, and shifts in capital allocation. It also examines how economic mobility and decision-making power are influenced by broader structural shifts in the global economy.

Methodology

The series employs a consistent four-step process to construct the Global Gender Gap Index, ensuring comparability across different years. First, data is converted into female-to-male ratios to focus on the gap between genders rather than absolute levels of development. Second, these ratios are truncated at a predefined equality benchmark, typically 1.0, to ensure the index measures parity rather than instances where women may outpace men. Third, subindex scores are calculated as weighted averages of underlying indicators, normalised by their standard deviations so that each indicator has a proportionate impact. Finally, the overall index score is derived from a simple average of the four subindices. Data is sourced from major international organisations, including the ILO, UNESCO, WHO, and the World Bank, supplemented by the World Economic Forum’s Executive Opinion Survey. Recent editions have also integrated real-time labour-market data from partners like LinkedIn to track leadership representation and career pathways in emerging sectors.

Use for finance professionals

For finance professionals and investors, this series offers a framework for assessing long-term economic resilience and human capital risk. The data regarding economic participation, particularly senior leadership representation and participation in high-growth industries like AI, provides a lens for evaluating the diversity and future-readiness of corporate leadership. The analysis of capital markets—including women’s access to financial products and their representation within central banks and investment institutions—is highly relevant for ESG integration and stewardship activities. Investors can use the regional and income-level performance data to identify emerging trends in labour market dynamics and legal reforms that may affect economic stability. By identifying effective policies for closing gender gaps, the reports aid in more sophisticated risk assessment and strategic capital allocation across different global markets.