GGGR 2023

Performance by region 1.5 The Global Gender Gap Report 2023 categorizes countries into eight regions: Eurasia and Central Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, North America, Southern Asia, and Sub- Saharan Africa. Countries in each regional group are listed in Appendix A. Gender parity in Europe (76.3%) surpasses the parity level in North America (75%) this year to rank first among regions. Closely behind Europe and North America is Latin America and the Caribbean, with 74.3% parity. Trailing more than 5 percentage points behind Latin America and the Caribbean are Eurasia and Central Asia (69%) as well as East Asia and the Pacific (68.8%). Sub-Saharan Africa ranks 6th (68.2%), slightly below the global weighted average score (68.3%). Southern Asia (63.4%) overtakes the Middle East and North Africa (62.6%), which is, in 2023, the region furthest away from parity. Using the 102-country constant sample to assess trends over time suggests that Southern Asia as well as Latin America and the Caribbean experienced an improvement of 1.1 percentage points and 1.7 percentage points, respectively, since the last edition. Sub-Saharan Africa improves marginally (+0.1 percentage points) while Eurasia and Central Asia (-0.01 percentage points), East Asia and the Pacific (-0.02 percentage points), and Europe (-0.02 percentage points) show a slight decline. North America (-1.9 percentage points) and the Middle East and North Africa (-0.09 percentage points) suffer more significant setbacks in overall gender parity. The longer-term trends offer further insights into progress in the regional gender parity profiles. In comparison to the inaugural edition in 2006, the Latin America and the Caribbean region has improved the most, with an increase of 8.4 percentage points over the past 17 years. Europe (+6.1 percentage points) and Sub-Saharan Africa (+5.2 percentage points) are the other two regions that have improved by more than 5 percentage points. North America (+4.5 percentage points), the Middle East and North Africa (+4.2 percentage points) and Southern Asia (+4.1 percentage points) have improved by more than 4 percentage points, though parity scores in all three regions have backslid in recent editions. Eurasia and Central Asia (+ 3.2 percentage points) and East Asia and the Pacific (+ 2.8 percentage points) have seen the slowest to progress since 2006. A more nuanced picture emerges from the heat map in Figure 1.6, which disaggregates regional scores by subindex and represents higher levels of parity using a darker colour. Most regions have achieved relatively higher parity in Educational Attainment and Health and Survival. The advancement in Economic Participation and Opportunity is more uneven, with Southern 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Percentage pointsMiddle East and North AfricaSouthern AsiaEast Asia and the Pacific Sub-Saharan AfricaEurope North America Latin America and the Caribbean Eurasia and Central Asia75.0% 74.3% 69.0% 68.2%68.8% 63.4% 62.6%76.3% Source World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Index, 2023.NotePopulation-weighted averages for the 146 economies featured in the Global Gender Gap Index 2023.Gender gap closed to date, by region FIGURE 1.5 Global Gender Gap Report 2023 19