Pakistan Climbs to 143rd of 145 in WEF's Gender Gap Index, Its Best Year-on-Year Gain in a Decade

Pakistan closed 59.5% of its overall gender gap in the World Economic Forum's 2026 Global Gender Gap Report, up from 56.7% the previous year — the country's strongest year-on-year improvement in a decade. Even so, Pakistan ranks 143rd out of 145 countries measured, ahead of only Algeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iran and Chad.

A modest climb after years at the bottom

The improvement follows a 2025 report in which Pakistan ranked dead last out of 148 countries scored by the WEF. Climbing to 143rd of a smaller pool of 145 economies this year reflects genuine gains rather than just a smaller sample: the Forum's own analysis credits Educational Attainment as the main driver, with Pakistan posting its sharpest single-pillar gain in a decade in that category. The WEF's index tracks four pillars — Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, Economic Participation and Opportunity, and Political Empowerment — and compiles them into the overall score.

The labour-force gap is still the biggest drag

Economic Participation and Opportunity remains Pakistan's weakest pillar by far, ranking 144th of 145 countries with a score of just 36.4%. The headline number behind that ranking: 81.46% of Pakistani men participate in the labour force, against only 28.21% of women — a gap the WEF describes as among the largest of any economy it measures. That gap alone does most of the work in keeping Pakistan's overall rank near the bottom of the table, regardless of progress elsewhere.

Pakistan's other pillar rankings are a mixed picture rather than a uniform failure. It ranks 127th on Health and Survival, reflecting ongoing concerns around maternal mortality and reproductive healthcare access, and 107th on Political Empowerment — still poor in absolute terms, but notably better than its economic and overall standing.

Why a labour-force gap this size matters

A gender gap in economic participation isn't just a women's-rights statistic — it's a drag on the size of the available workforce and, by extension, on growth. An economy where fewer than three in ten women participate in paid work is operating with a large share of its working-age population effectively outside the formal labour market, regardless of their education level or skills. That's part of why Pakistan's graduate unemployment problem, already acute for men and women alike, compounds further for women entering a labour market that was already absorbing them at a far lower rate before they graduated.

The pattern also connects to Pakistan's broader record on children's and women's rights this year. A UNHRC-linked report on child marriage and a separate report on how gender-based violence cases get handled both point to the same underlying story: legal and institutional gains on paper have outpaced what actually changes for women's economic and physical autonomy day to day.

What would move the number next year

The WEF's own framing suggests educational gains can only carry Pakistan's score so far if they don't translate into labour-market participation — a country can close its education gap and still rank near the bottom if graduates, especially women, aren't entering or staying in paid work afterward. Pakistan's own out-of-school children crisis remains a precondition that has to improve before education gains show up in the workforce data a decade from now. Whether next year's report shows a similar jump will likely hinge less on new education numbers and more on whether the 28.21% female labour-force participation rate moves at all.

Build Better Pakistan's Rights Desk tracks international indices and reports bearing on gender equality and child welfare in Pakistan.