The World Economic Forum (WEF) released its 2024 Global Gender Gap Index report on Wednesday and revealed that Greece is among the short-list of countries where the gender gap closed the most since 2023, highlighting that the country jumped 20 points to 73rd place in 2024.
Greece scored 71.4% and the average 2024 Global gender gap score stands at 68.5% while the average score for Europe is 75%.
The World Economic Forum says that at the current rate of change it will take 134 years for the world to close the gap and reach full parity.
The Best and the Worst
Iceland has been leading the index for a decade and a half and again took first place for having the smallest gender gap, with a score of 93.5%. It also continues to be the only economy to have closed over 90% of its gender gap, says the WEF.
Out of the remaining nine economies in the top 10, eight have closed over 80% of their gap, explains the WEF.
The WEF reports that 7 out of the 10 best performers on the global index are located in Europe.
“In addition to Iceland, these include Finland (2nd, 87.5%), Norway (3rd, 87.5%), Sweden (5th, 81.6%), Germany (7th, 81%), Ireland (9th, 80.2%) and Spain (10th, 79.7%),” says the WEF.
The five economies that improved their rankings the most all climbed over 20 places. These include: Ecuador (+34, ranked 16th), Sierra Leone (+32, ranked 80th), Guatemala (+24, ranked 93rd), Cyprus (+22, ranked 84th) and Romania and Greece (+20, ranked 68th and 73rd, respectively).
About the Index
The Global Gender Gap Index annually benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment.
It was launched in 2006, benchmarks gender parity across 146 countries, and is the longest-standing index tracking the progress of numerous economies’ efforts towards closing these gaps over time.
