Global Gender Gap Report 20257Educational Attainment, with 95.3%. Parity in primary education enrolment in the region has declined over time by –2.2 percentage points. In 2025, Laos PDR, Philippines and Papua New Guinea still have female primary education enrolment rates under 90%. Across regions, Eastern Asia and the Pacific places the lowest in Health and Survival with a score of 95.5%. Only 15 of the economies in the regional block have achieved over 96% in health parity in 2025, a metric impacted by lower levels of sex ratio at birth parity in Viet Nam, China, Brunei Darussalam and Papua New Guinea. Eastern Asia and the Pacific also ranks sixth in Political Empowerment, having achieved 15.3% of political parity. Despite narrowing the political gap by 4.1 percentage points since the index launched in 2006, the region advances slowly and unevenly. In 2025, only New Zealand (60.4%) has passed the 50% marker for political parity, while Japan, Cambodia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu trail behind, with scores under 10%. Nine of the 19 economies have had no female head of state. –Sub-Saharan Africa ranks sixth globally, having achieved a gender parity score of 68.0%. Comprising 36 economies, the region displays a wide range of parity outcomes. The highest-ranked economy, Namibia (81.1%), places 8th globally while Chad ranks 146th with a score of 57.1%. Coming fifth in Economic Participation and Opportunity, Sub-Saharan Africa scores 67.5%, marking a 4.8 percentage-point improvement since 2006. Chad records the index’s lowest economic score (44.4%), while Botswana leads the global ranking (87.3%). Representation of women in senior economic leadership varies widely, with parity scores ranging from 13.2% in Chad to full parity in eight economies in the region. 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. 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%. At the launch of the index, the region scored zero for years with female head of state; yet in 2025, this indicator has reached 3.2%. Women now hold 40.2% of ministerial roles and 37.7% of parliamentary seats, although Rwanda is the only economy in the region to achieve full parliamentary parity. –In 2025, Southern Asia ranks 7th, with a gender parity score of 64.6%. Of the seven economies that make up the regional block, only Bangladesh (24th, 77.5%) places in the top 50. In Economic Participation and Opportunity, the region scores 40.6%. Over time, Southern Asia has increased its parity score for economic representation for senior workers (+9.1 percentage points) and for professional and technical workers (+17.2 percentage points). However, the parity score in estimated earned income has dropped by -7.8 percentage points. In Educational Attainment, Southern Asia ranks sixth at 95.4%. Economies show high levels of variance in literacy parity: in Nepal and Pakistan, the literacy parity score is below 75.0%, while full parity is observed in the Maldives. The Health and Survival score of Southern Asia is 95.5%. Over time, sparse advances in healthy life expectancy (+0.9 percentage points) are countered by parity losses in sex ratio at birth (-1 percentage point). In Political Empowerment, Southern Asia places fourth with a score of 26.8%. In 2006, the region had the highest baseline (2006) score of all regions, at 21.9%. Since then, it has advanced political parity by 4.9 percentage points – and has been since outstripped by other regions. Of the seven economies in the block, only Bangladesh has achieved political parity at the head-of-state level. At the parliamentary level, Bhutan and Maldives are the only two economies with parity scores under 5%. –In 8th place ranks Middle East and Northern Africa with a regional gender parity score of 61.7%. Despite being the lowest ranked, its trajectory signals gradual improvement. At 42.4%, advances in Economic Participation and Opportunity score are challenged by a high level of dispersion: top performers like Israel (73.0%) and Bahrain (65.6%) more than double the scores of Sudan (31.3%) and Iran (Islamic Republic of) (34.9%). Yet bright spots shine through – Jordan reports over 50% female representation among senior officials and managers, and women make up a majority of professional and technical workers in Israel and Lebanon. The region ranks fifth globally in Educational Attainment (97.6%), having gained +5.4 percentage points since 2006. Most economies are nearing full parity in Educational Attainment, but disparities remain between economies; in particular, literacy and enrolment rates can differ significantly among them. In Health and Survival, the region places sixth with a score of 96.2%. The region continues to trail in Political Empowerment, with the lowest global score of 10.5%. Still, the regional average has more than tripled since 2006, gaining 8.3 percentage points. The United Arab Emirates leads with a political parity score of 37.2%, ranking 32nd globally.

GGGR 2025