India Ranks 131st in Global Gender Gap Index 2025

India has dropped two places to 131st position in the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2025. With a score of just 64.1%, India is among the lowest-ranked countries in South Asia. Last year, India was ranked 129th.

India’s Gender Equality Score in 2025

The report, released on Thursday, mentions that in 2025, India remained at the 131st position with an overall gender equality score of 64.4%. The drop in India's ranking is attributed to better performance by other economies compared to 2024.

Key Dimensions of Gender Equality

The Global Gender Gap Index assesses gender equality based on four key dimensions: economic participation and opportunity, educational achievement, health and survival, and political empowerment.

Economic Participation and Opportunity

India saw a slight improvement in economic participation and opportunity with a +0.9% increase, bringing the score to 40.7%. In terms of earned income equality, the score increased from 28.6% to 29.9%, showing positive progress.

Education

India scored 97.1% in terms of educational progress, reflecting positive changes in women's literacy and higher education participation. This led to a significant improvement in the overall educational sub-index score.

Health and Survival

India also recorded high gender equality in health and survival, with improvements in the sex ratio at birth and life expectancy. Despite a general decline in life expectancy for both men and women, equality in healthy life expectancy was achieved.

Political Empowerment

However, India's ranking in political empowerment showed a slight decline, with a -0.6 point decrease. Women’s representation in Parliament dropped from 14.7% to 13.8%, and the share of women in ministerial roles also fell from 6.5% to 5.6%.

South Asia's Gender Equality Status

Among South Asian countries, Bangladesh has made significant progress, jumping 75 ranks to 24th place globally. Other countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives, and Pakistan are ranked 125th, 130th, 119th, 138th, and 148th respectively.

The report highlights that South Asia has a gender equality score of 64.6% and ranks 7th globally. Only Bangladesh (24th) from South Asia has made it to the top 50 countries.

Gender Equality Outlook

The report concludes that at the current pace, full gender equality will take an estimated 123 years to achieve.

Top-Ranked Countries

In terms of global rankings, Iceland has topped the Gender Gap Index for the 16th consecutive year, followed by Finland, Norway, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand.