Global Gender Gap Report 202530In 2025, Europe places fourth out of all regions in Economic Participation and Opportunity (68.4%). In terms of performance, 35.0% of the regional block has closed three-quarters of the economic gap, while another 7.5% is yet to pass the 60% parity mark. Since the launch of the index, Europe has closed its economic parity gap by 8.6 percentage points, and most notably, reduced gender disparity in senior and technical and professional representation categories by 13.9 and 12.4, respectively. The region ranks third in Educational Attainment (99.6%), having reduced educational disparity by a modest 1.5 percentage points since the index was launched. 32.5% of the regional block has achieved full educational parity, and the remaining ones are within 5 percentage points of doing so. Modest advances have been made in primary and secondary education enrolments, with advances under 3 percentage points. Parity in literacy, by contrast, has receded by 0.1 percentage points. Where Europe has made the most progress to date is in tertiary education enrolment, where gender parity has increased by 4 percentage points since 2006. In Health and Survival (96.9%) Europe ranks fourth out of all regions, showing a nearly 1 percentage-point loss since its first score was indexed. This devolution follows a decrease in parity in healthy life expectancy of –2.6 percentage points. In striking comparison, Europe boasts the highest regional score in Political Empowerment with 35.4%. The achievement is especially remarkable in light of the high score dispersion in this category, where the difference between the highest (Iceland, 95.4%) and lowest score (Türkiye, 5.9%) is 89.5 percentage points. Regional advances in Political Empowerment nearly double those of Economic Participation and Opportunity, with gains since 2006 of 16.0 and 8.6 percentage points, respectively. Since the launch of the index, all three metrics for political parity show significant improvement, with increases of 10.8 percentage points for years with a female head of state, 21.1 percentage points for ministerial parity, and 25.6 percentage points for parliamentary parity. Out of all regions, Europe has the third-highest ministerial and second-highest parliamentary scores of the 2025 index, at 55.3% and 53.3%, respectively. Latin America and the Caribbean Latin America and the Caribbean stands out in the 2025 edition of the Global Gender Gap Index as the third-ranked region, with a gender parity score of 74.5%. Comprising 23 economies, the region has made the greatest overall progress since the index’s inception in 2006 – closing 8.6 percentage points of its gender gap. Despite achieving the third-lowest score globally in Economic Participation and Opportunity (65.6%), Latin America and the Caribbean has made significant headway, narrowing its economic gap by 9.9 percentage points since 2006. As of 2025, every country in the region has closed at least 50% of its economic gap. The region also demonstrates strong internal consistency in this dimension, with less than 8.4 percentage points separating the top and bottom performers. Notable improvements in economic parity are seen in leadership and workforce representation. Since 2006, parity scores for senior officials, managers and legislators have risen by 18 percentage points, while parity in professional and technical roles improved by 8.8 percentage points. In 2025, women hold an average of 42.9% of senior economic leadership positions, though disparities persist, with more than 32 percentage points separating economies within the region. Workforce parity is a brighter spot: 14 economies report full parity in professional and technical roles, and the lowest score in this category (El Salvador, 80.8%) remains well above the global average of 72.0%. The region records the third-highest score in Educational Attainment (99.6%), with only a 1.6-percentage-point improvement since 2006 – reflecting the region’s near-parity baseline level. Ten economies have reached full educational parity and the remainder are within 3 percentage points of doing so. Thirteen economies have achieved full parity in literacy, with Guatemala as the outlier, posting a female literacy rate of 78.6%, well below the regional norm. In primary education, parity is uneven. While countries like Uruguay report near-universal female enrolment (99%), Trinidad and Tobago, Honduras and Suriname still report enrolment rates under 80%, highlighting areas for renewed focus. Latin America and the Caribbean achieves the highest regional score for Health and Survival (97.7%), with tightly clustered national scores – less than 1.5 percentage points separating the top and bottom. All 23 economies have achieved parity in sex ratio at birth, underscoring widespread progress in basic health equity. Political parity has seen transformative gains, with the region ranking second globally (35%) and achieving a 23.3 percentage-point improvement since 2006. Across the block, progress is broad-based: gender parity has risen by 7.7 percentage points in heads of state, 40.5 in ministerial roles, and 31.9 in parliamentary representation. The region boasts a strong record of female political leadership: 15 economies have had a woman as head of state in the past five decades. In 17 economies, women make up at least one-third of the cabinet and all economies include women in parliament – with Mexico and Nicaragua posting full parliamentary parity. Middle East and Northern Africa Middle East and Northern Africa ranks eighth in the 2025 edition of the Global Gender Gap Index, with a regional gender parity score of 61.7%. Comprising 14 economies, the region has made moderate progress since 2006, closing 3.9 percentage points of its overall gender gap. While it remains the lowest-ranked

GGGR 2025