Pakistan ranks 143rd in global gender gap index

Pakistan has improved slightly in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Index 2026 but remains among the lowest-ranked countries worldwide, placing 143rd out of 145 economies.

According to the WEF’s latest Global Gender Gap Report, Pakistan closed 59.5% of its overall gender gap, marking a 2.8 percentage-point improvement from its 2025 score of 56.7%. The country had ranked 148th among 148 economies in last year’s index.

The WEF said Pakistan recorded its strongest year-on-year improvement in a decade, largely because of significant progress in educational attainment. However, economic participation and opportunity remained the country’s weakest area and the main obstacle to achieving greater gender parity.

Pakistan also continued to rank last among South Asian countries. Bangladesh led the region with a global ranking of 79th, while India stood second from the bottom in South Asia.

Education emerged as Pakistan’s strongest area of performance. The country’s Educational Attainment score increased to 91.7%, rising by more than six percentage points compared with the previous edition. Since the index was launched in 2006, Pakistan’s education parity score has increased from 70.6% to 91.7%.

The WEF noted that improvements in female enrolment at primary, secondary and tertiary levels have been a major factor behind Pakistan’s progress. Pakistan also ranked first globally for female enrolment in tertiary education.

Despite these gains, women continue to face significant disparities in the economy. Pakistan scored 36.4% in Economic Participation and Opportunity, ranking 144th globally. Gender parity in labour-force participation stood at only 34.6%.

Women represented 44.9% of professional and technical workers, but their presence in senior positions remained limited. Only 6.5% of legislators, senior officials and managers were women. The estimated earned-income parity score was even lower at 26.3%, declining by 7.7 percentage points since 2006.

Pakistan recorded some improvement in political representation, with its Political Empowerment score rising to 14.1%. The country ranked 107th globally in this category. Parliamentary representation parity increased by 7.1 percentage points, while ministerial representation parity improved by 3.6 percentage points.

On Health and Survival, Pakistan performed comparatively better, recording a gender parity score of 95.9%. The country ranked first on the index for sex ratio at birth, while the health and survival score has improved by 0.8 percentage points since 2006.

Globally, 69.2% of the gender gap had been closed across the 145 economies assessed in the 2026 index. Iceland topped the ranking with 93% parity, followed by Finland, Norway, Namibia and the United Kingdom.