The global gender gap has narrowed to its smallest level since the World Economic Forum (WEF) began tracking it two decades ago, but the world could still be 120 years away from achieving full gender parity, according to the organisation’s 2026 Global Gender Gap Report.
The report, released on September 16, assessed 145 economies across four key areas — economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. It found that 69.2% of the global gender gap has now been closed, an improvement of 0.4 percentage points over the previous year. However, at the current pace of progress, complete parity remains more than a century away.
The latest assessment marks the 20th edition of the Global Gender Gap Report. For its long-term comparison, the WEF examined 97 economies that have been included consistently since 2006. Across this group, the overall gender parity score has improved by 5.2 percentage points over the past two decades, reaching 69.4%, the highest level recorded for the group.
Despite the improvement, no economy has succeeded in completely closing its gender gap in 2026. Iceland continues to report the highest level of gender parity, having closed 93% of its overall gap. It has remained at the top of the WEF index for 17 consecutive years and is the only economy to have crossed the 90% mark.
The report highlights significant differences between the four areas measured. Educational attainment is closest to achieving parity, with 96.9% of the global gap closed. If the present pace continues, the remaining gap in education could potentially be eliminated within eight years.
Health and survival also remains relatively close to parity, with 96.2% of the gap closed. The situation is considerably different in the economic and political spheres. Only 61.7% of the economic participation and opportunity gap has been closed, while political empowerment remains the area with the largest disparity, with just 22.1% of the gap closed. At the current rate of improvement, the WEF estimates that economic parity could take 129 years and political parity could take 194 years.
The report also points to a slowdown in women’s progress into senior leadership positions. Data cited by the WEF shows that women make up about 46% of workers at entry level, but their representation falls to around 23% at the C-suite level. Women account for only 19.1% of chief executive officer positions, highlighting the continuing gap between women’s participation in the workforce and their representation in the most influential corporate roles.
Political representation presents another concern. While political empowerment recorded the largest improvement among the four dimensions over the past 20 years, the report says progress has reversed since 2016. The proportion of economies led by a woman reached a peak in 2022 but has subsequently fallen back to levels last seen around 2016. The WEF described the broader progress towards gender parity as fragile, warning that gains made over the past two decades cannot be assumed to continue automatically.
The report also examines the changing nature of employment and technology. Women remain significantly underrepresented in the artificial intelligence workforce, accounting for fewer than one in five AI engineers. The WEF said this gap could have implications for women’s participation in some of the industries expected to shape future economic growth.
The findings show that progress towards gender equality has been recorded across economies at different income levels, although substantial differences remain. Higher-income economies have an average parity score of 74.5%, compared with 65.8% among low-income economies. However, the WEF noted that income alone does not determine performance, with some lower-income economies recording stronger gender parity than a number of wealthier countries.
The WEF said the latest figures demonstrate that gender parity is achievable but that progress needs to accelerate. Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director of the World Economic Forum, said two decades of data show that economies at every income level have made progress, while stressing that parity cannot be taken for granted.
The report therefore presents a mixed picture: the global gender gap is narrower than at any previous point measured by the index, but progress remains uneven, particularly in political representation, economic opportunity and access to senior leadership. Unless the pace of change increases substantially, the WEF estimates that full global gender parity will remain 120 years away.
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