GGGR 2025

Global Gender Gap Report 202532In Educational Attainment, Southern Asia places sixth among regions, with a 95.4% parity score. Over time, the region has made substantive progress to advance educational parity, resulting in a 14.4-percentage-point increase from its 2006 score. The most significant shift the region has made over the past 19 editions is a 20.1 percentage-point parity increase in literacy, and a 31.1% parity increase in tertiary education enrolment. Despite this achievement, economies continue to show high levels of variance in female shares of literacy: in Pakistan, only 48.5% of women are literate, compared to 98% in the Maldives. The Health and Survival score of Southern Asia is 95.5%, second from the bottom in the regional scoreboard. Over time, this subindex has seen limited movement, and the sparse advances registered in healthy life expectancy (+0.9 percentage points) are countered by parity losses in sex ratio at birth (-1 percentage points). In Political Empowerment, Southern Asia places fourth among regions, having a political parity score of 26.8%. In 2006, the region had the highest baseline score of all regions at 21.9%. Since then, it has advanced political parity by 4.9 percentage points – a solid effort that nonetheless has been outstripped by other regions. Of the seven economies in the block, there are two where women have not yet been head of state and only Bangladesh has achieved political parity at the head-of-state level. Only in Bangladesh do women represent around one-fifth of ministers (18.2%). At the parliamentary level, Bhutan and Maldives are the only two economies with parity scores under 5%. Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa ranks sixth among regions in the 2025 Global Gender Gap Index, with an overall gender parity score of 68.0%. Since 2006, the region has improved its parity score by 5.6 percentage points. Comprising 36 economies, the region displays significant heterogeneity in parity outcomes. The highest-ranked country, Namibia (81.1%), places 8th globally and is the only Sub-Saharan African economy in the global top 10 in 2025. Historically, Namibia has featured in the top 10 six times. At the other end of the spectrum, Chad ranks 146th with a score of 57.1%, resulting in a 24-percentage-point gap between the top and bottom performers. Twenty economies in the region place in the global top 100. In Economic Participation and Opportunity, Sub- Saharan Africa ranks fifth, with a score of 67.5%, marking a 4.8 percentage-point improvement since 2006. The region presents diverse performance profiles in this dimension: Chad records the lowest score (44.4%), while Botswana leads globally (87.3%). Female labour-force participation ranges from 39.2% in Senegal to 80.7% in Nigeria. Representation of women in senior economic leadership varies widely, from 11.6% in Chad to 69.9% in Burkina Faso. The region has achieved a 35.1 percentage-point improvement in parity for senior officials, managers and legislators, and a 12-point gain in labour-force participation parity. Sub-Saharan Africa ranks eighth in Educational Attainment, with a score of 85.6%, up 5.2 percentage points since 2006. This improvement is largely driven by gains in educational enrolment parity, though challenges remain. Female literacy parity has declined by 1.5 percentage points over time, and in 2025, female literacy rates remain below 50% in 13 economies. Female enrolment in primary education remains below 80% in nearly one-third of the region’s economies. Further, at the tertiary level, only Mauritius has enrolment rates above 30% for both men and women. In line with other regions, women surpass men in tertiary enrolment rates. In Political Empowerment, Sub-Saharan Africa ranks fifth, with a score of 22.2% – a 12.4 percentage- point improvement since 2006. At the launch of the index, the region scored zero for years with female head of state; by 2025, parity in this indicator has reached 3.2%. Ministerial and parliamentary representation has also seen substantial gains: women now hold 40.2% of ministerial roles and 37.7% of parliamentary seats, up from under 20% in both categories in 2006. Rwanda is the only economy in the region to achieve full parliamentary parity, with South Africa (81%) and Cape Verde (80%) close behind. All 36 economies have women in ministerial positions, though representation varies widely – from 45.5% in Ethiopia to just 8% in Mauritius.