Global Gender Gap Report 2025

India has been ranked 131st out of 148 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2025, a drop of two places from its 129th position in the previous year. The report, released on June 12, 2025, indicates that India has a parity score of 64.1%, placing it among the lowest-ranked countries in South Asia.

• The Global Gender Gap Index assesses gender parity across four key dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment.

India’s Performance in Key Dimensions:

• Economic Participation and Opportunity: India showed an improvement in this dimension, with its score rising by +0.9 percentage points to 40.7%. This was positively impacted by an increase in parity in estimated earned income, which rose from 28.6% to 29.9%. The labour force participation rate remained at 45.9%, India’s highest achieved to date.
• Political Empowerment: India experienced a slight drop in parity in this dimension, declining by -0.6 points since the last edition. Female representation in Parliament decreased from 14.7% to 13.8% in 2025, marking the second consecutive year of decline below 2023 levels. Similarly, the share of women in ministerial roles fell from 6.5% to 5.6%, moving further away from its highest level of 30% in 2019.
• Educational Attainment: India achieved near parity in educational attainment, scoring 97.1%.
• Health and Survival: India showed modest improvement in this area, with gains in sex ratio at birth and healthy life expectancy.

Regional and Global Comparison:

• South Asia: Bangladesh emerged as the best performer in South Asia, climbing 75 ranks to secure the 24th position globally due to notable gains in political empowerment and economic participation. Other South Asian countries ranked as follows: Bhutan (119), Nepal (125), Sri Lanka (130), Maldives (138), and Pakistan (148 – lowest globally).
• Global Leaders: Iceland continues to lead the rankings for the 16th consecutive year, followed by Finland, Norway, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand.