WEF’s Gender Gap Report 2022: India ranks low at 135th globally

India ranks 135 among a total of 146 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index 2022 of the World Economic Forum (WEF).  Iceland retained its place as the world’s most gender-equal country, followed by Finland, Norway, New Zealand and Sweden, as per the annual Gender Gap Report 2022 of the World Economic Forum (WEF) released in Geneva.

Only 11 countries are ranked below India on the index of 146 nations, with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Congo, Iran and Chad being the worst-five. It is the worst performer in the world in the “health and survival” sub-index where it is ranked 146. India also ranks poorly among its neighbours and is behind Bangladesh (71), Nepal (96), Sri Lanka (110), Maldives (117) and Bhutan (126). Only Iran (143), Pakistan (145) and Afghanistan (146) perform worse than India in south Asia.

4 key dimensions

The Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks gender parity across four key dimensions or sub-indices — economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. It measures scores on a 0 to 100 scale, which can be interpreted as the distance covered towards parity or the percentage of the gender gap that has been closed.

Key points of the reports:

Iceland has retained its position as the world’s most gender-equal country, among 146 nations on the index. Finland, Norway, New Zealand and Sweden are the top five countries on the list respectively. Afghanistan is the worst-performing country in the report. India ranks 146 in health and survival, 143 in economic participation and opportunity, 107 in educational attainment and 48th in political empowerment.