ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has improved its position by five places in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2026, moving from 148th to 143rd among 145 economies, although the country continues to face substantial disparities between men and women.
The latest report, announced by Mishal Pakistan, a WEF partner institute, showed that Pakistan registered its strongest year-on-year improvement in the index in the past decade.
The country’s overall gender parity score rose by 2.8%, increasing from 56.7% in 2025 to 59.5% in 2026.
Despite the improvement, Pakistan remains among the lowest-ranked countries globally. Its overall score has increased by 5.2% since the index was first established in 2006, when Pakistan recorded a parity score of 54.3%.
The 2026 index assesses gender disparities through four key areas: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment.
Pakistan recorded progress in all four categories, with its rankings for Educational Attainment and Political Empowerment improving by 11 positions each.
However, Economic Participation and Opportunity continued to represent the country’s biggest challenge. Pakistan scored 36.4% in this category, placing 144th worldwide and at the bottom of the South Asian rankings.
The country’s economic gender parity score increased by 1.6% from the previous year, but remained 0.5% below its 2006 level.
In education, Pakistan posted a record parity score of 91.7%, placing it at 130th globally and reflecting its strongest performance among the four pillars measured by the index.
