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India Ranks 131st in Global Gender Gap Index 2026
India retains the 131st rank in the Global Gender Gap Index 2026 released by the World Economic Forum recently. The index reports India’s overall gender parity score at 64.5%, while Iceland, Finland, and Norway occupy the top three ranks.
Global Gender Gap Index 2026:
| Dimension | Key Details |
|---|---|
| Index nature | It is an annual index designed to measure gender equality. |
| Key dimensions | It comprises four subindexes: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. |
| Benchmarking scope | It benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity. |
| Tracking period | Since launching in 2006, it is the longest-standing index tracking the progress of numerous countries’ efforts towards closing gender gaps over time. |
| Global progress | Globally, 69.2% of the gender gap is closed, up by 0.4 percentage points over the last year. |
| Top 3 countries | Iceland, Finland, and Norway maintain the top three slots respectively. |
| Top country score | Iceland ranks 1st with 93% of its gender gap closed. |
| Coverage consistency | Across the 143 economies covered in both the 2025 and 2026 editions, the overall score increases by 0.4 percentage points. |
| Subindex changes | Education rises from 95.3% to 96.9%; economic participation rises from 61.3% to 61.7%; health and survival rises from 96.1% to 96.2%; political empowerment declines from 22.5% to 22.1%. |
| India rank and score | India ranks 131st with 64.5%. |
| India position relative to bottom | Only 14 countries rank below India on the index of 145 countries. |
| Countries listed as ranking below India | Countries ranked below India include Papua New Guinea, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Tajikistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, Mali, Algeria, and Congo. |
| Lowest-ranked and bottom three | Chad ranks lowest, with Iran and Pakistan joining it in the bottom three. |
| India change since 2006 | Overall, India’s gender parity increases by 4.3 percentage points since 2006, primarily due to gains in educational attainment. |
| India economic participation subindex | In the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, India reports 41.2% parity score, which is 0.5 higher than the previous edition but 3.5 percentage points lower than its best result in 2013. |
| Australia in top 10 | Australia cracks the top 10 for the first time. |