India retains 131st rank in Global Gender Gap Index 2026, Iceland on top

Chad was the lowest-ranked country in the index, with Iran and Pakistan joining it in the bottom three

India retained the 131st rank on the Global Gender Gap Index 2026 released by the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, with Iceland, Finland and Norway maintaining their top three slots respectively.

Only 14 countries ranked below than India on the index of 145 countries. These include Papua New Guinea, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Tajikistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, Mali, Algeria and Congo.

Geneva-based WEF said that nearly every economy tracked since 2006 by the index has advanced gender parity, but noted that full parity is still 120 years away.

Globally, 69.2 per cent of the gender gap has now been closed, up by 0.4 percentage points over the last year, the WEF said. 100 per cent representing full parity.