Pakistan at 143rd on gender parity

Country ranks third-last on WEF's Gender Gap Index 2026

Pakistan has climbed to 143rd out of 145 economies in the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Global Gender Gap Index 2026, with the country closing 59.5% of its gender gap after a slight overall improvement was recorded in education and political sectors.

Last year, Pakistan attained the lowest score among 148 countries scored by the WEF on gender mainstreaming.

According to the WEF's latest Global Gender Gap Report, Pakistan registered an improvement of 2.8% compared to its last year's score of 56.7%. The country's score has risen by 5.2 percentage points since the index was first published in 2006, when Pakistan stood at 54.3%.

The report said, "The 2026 edition marks its strongest year-on-year improvement in a decade [for Pakistan], driven primarily by substantial gains in Educational Attainment."

It also said that Economic Participation and Opportunity remained Pakistan's "weakest-performing subindex and the principal constraint" on overall gender parity.

Compared to other South Asian countries, Pakistan ranked last on the gender gap index in the region despite the registered slight improvement. India ranked second last in the region while Bangladesh assumed the regional lead with its 79th overall rank.

Pakistan remains among the five lowest-ranked economies globally, ahead of only Algeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iran and Chad in the 2026 ranking.

In global rankings, Pakistan leads the world in terms of female enrolment in tertiary education.

Pakistan's Educational Attainment score jumped to a record 91.7%, up by more than six percentage points from the previous edition. The improvement has been substantial over the longer term as well. Pakistan's education parity score has risen from 70.6% in 2006 to 91.7% in 2026, a gain of 21 percentage points.

The WEF said improvements across primary, secondary and tertiary enrolment have been the principal driver of Pakistan's progress in the overall index, with parity across these education indicators increasing by about 20 percentage points over the past two decades.

The sharp improvement in education contrasts with Pakistan's continuing difficulties in translating gains in schooling into greater participation in the economy.

Pakistan recorded a score of just 36.4% in Economic Participation and Opportunity, placing it 144th globally and last in South Asia. The score nevertheless increased by 1.6 percentage points from the previous edition.

The WEF estimates that Pakistan has the "eighth-largest workforce gender gap" among the economies covered by the index. Gender parity in labour-force participation stands at only 34.6%.