Pakistan Drops 2 Places to Hit Rock Bottom in Global Gender Gap Report 2025

Pakistan has been ranked last out of 148 countries in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2025. The annual report, released earlier this week, measures gender parity across four main areas: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. Pakistan’s overall score dropped for the second year in a row, falling from 57 percent in 2024 to 56.7 percent in 2025.

While there was some progress in education, with the gender gap in educational attainment improving by 1.5 percentage points to 85.1 percent, this was mainly due to a small rise in female literacy—from 46.5 percent to 48.5 percent. However, the report noted that the improvement at the university level was partly because of a decrease in male enrollment, not a significant increase in female participation.

Pakistan’s score for economic participation and opportunity declined by 1.3 percentage points, reflecting growing income and wage gaps. The report pointed out a slight increase in income disparity and a four-percentage-point rise in perceived wage inequality. According to the World Bank, women make up only 22.8 percent of Pakistan’s labor force, and their presence in leadership and managerial roles remains very low.

Political empowerment also saw a setback. The gender gap in this area dropped from 12.2 percent in 2024 to 11 percent in 2025. Although women’s representation in parliament increased by 1.2 percentage points, the share of women in ministerial positions fell from 5.9 percent to zero.

Since 2006, Pakistan has closed just 2.3 percent of its overall gender gap. The 2025 report marks the second consecutive year of decline from the country’s best score of 57.7 percent in 2023.