Pakistan has improved its position in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2026, climbing five ranks from 148th to 143rd out of 145 countries. This progress reflects a narrowing of gender disparities, although significant inequalities remain across the country.
In a notable development, Pakistan achieved its most substantial year-on-year improvement in a decade. Its overall gender parity score increased by 2.8%, rising from 56.7% in 2025 to 59.5% in 2026. Since 2006, Pakistan has reduced its gender gap by 5.2%, up from a score of 54.3% that year, despite still ranking near the bottom globally.
The 2026 report evaluates gender gaps based on four key pillars: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. Pakistan showed progress in all these areas, with the most significant advances seen in Educational Attainment and Political Empowerment, where it jumped 11 places.
However, Economic Participation and Opportunity remains Pakistan’s weakest area, posing the greatest challenge to achieving overall gender parity. The country scored just 36.4% in this pillar, placing it 144th worldwide and last in South Asia. Although there was a 1.6% improvement compared to 2025, this score is still 0.5% lower than in 2006.
Conversely, Pakistan performed much better in Educational Attainment, achieving a record parity score of 91.7% and ranking 130th globally. This highlights the country’s progress in closing the gender gap in education, even as other areas require further attention.
