The Global Gender Gap Report was first published in 2005 by the World Economic Forum. The 2008 report covers 130 major and emerging economies.

The Report’s Gender Gap Index ranks economies according to their gender gaps and their scores can be interpreted as the percentage of the gap between women and men that has been closed. The three highest ranking countries have closed a little over 80% of their gender gaps, while the lowest ranking country has closed only a little over 45% of its gender gap. It “assesses countries on how well they are dividing their resources and opportunities among their male and female populations, regardless of the overall levels of these resources and opportunities,” the Report says. “By providing a comprehensible framework for assessing and comparing global gender gaps and by revealing those countries that are role models in dividing these resources equitably between women and men, the Report serves as a catalyst for greater awareness as well as greater exchange between policymakers.”

The Report examines four critical areas of inequality between men and women in 130 economies around the globe, over 92% of the world’s population:

1. Economic participation and opportunity – outcomes on salaries, participation levels and access to high-skilled employment
2.  Educational attainment – outcomes on access to basic and higher level education 
3. Political empowerment – outcomes on representation in decision-making structures 
4. Health and survival – outcomes on life expectancy and sex ratio

Thirteen out of the 14 variables used to create the Index are from publicly available “hard data” indicators from international organizations, such as the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Health Organization.

Top 20 Countries

1.  Norway 82.39%
2.  Finland 81.95%
3.  Sweden 81.39%
4.  Iceland 79.99%
5.  New Zealand 78.59%
6.  Philippines 75.68%
7.  Denmark 75.38%
8.  Ireland 75.18%
9.  Netherlands 73.99%
10.  Latvia 73.97%
11.  Germany 73.94%
12.  Sri_Lanka 73.71%
13.  United Kingdom 73.66%
14.  Switzerland 73.60%
15.  France 73.41%
16.  Lesotho 73.20%
17.  Spain 72.81%
18.  Mozambique 72.66%
19.  Trinidad and Tobago 72.45%
20.  Moldova 72.44%

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