Qatar’s lower overall ranking is driven by relatively Rica (52.4%), Sweden (51.2%) and Chile (50.2%). lower parity in terms of healthy life expectancy. The lowest parity scores are found for: Myanmar Though in most countries women tend to outlive (4.7%), Nigeria (4.1%), Iran (3.1%), Lebanon men, in 昀椀ve Middle Eastern and North African (2.1%), Vanuatu (0.6%) and Afghanistan (0%). countries (Morocco, 99.9%; Bahrain, 99.3%; Algeria, 99%; Jordan, 98.7%; Qatar, 95.5%), Iceland and Bangladesh are the only countries one from Sub-Saharan Africa (Mali, 99.3%) and where women have held the highest political two from Southern Asia (Pakistan, 99.9%, and position in a country for a higher number of years Afghanistan, 97.1%), the reverse is true. than men. In 67 other countries, women have never served as head of state in the past 50 years. For Viet Nam, Azerbaijan, India and China, the relatively low overall rankings on the Health and In terms of the share of women in ministerial Survival subindex is explained by skewed sex ratios positions, 11 out of 146 countries, led by Albania, at birth. Compared to top scoring countries that Finland and Spain, have 50% or more ministers register a 94.4% gender parity at birth, the indicator who are women. However, 75 countries have 20% stands at 92.7% for India (albeit an improvement or less female ministers. Further, populous countries over last edition) and below 90% for Viet Nam, such as India, Türkiye and China have less than China and Azerbaijan. 7% ministers who are women and countries like Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon have none. Finally, the Political Empowerment subindex registers once again the largest gender gap, at As regards to parity in the number of seats in only 22.1% of the gap closed and the greatest national parliaments, 昀椀ve countries stand at full spread of scores across countries. Iceland parity: Mexico, Nicaragua, Rwanda, the United stands out as best performer, with a 90.1% parity Arab Emirates and (as of this year’s edition) New score, which is 13.6 percentage points greater Zealand. The countries with the least representation than the country ranking second (Norway) and of women in parliament (less than 5%) are Maldives 69 percentage points above the median global (4.8% of the gender gap closed), Qatar (4.6%), score (21.1%). In addition to the 昀椀rst two ranked, Nigeria (3.7%), Oman (2.4%) and Vanuatu (1.9%). only 10 other countries out of the 146 included Though still below the 40% parity threshold, Benin this year score above the 50% parity score: and Malta saw the largest improvements for this New Zealand (72.5%), Finland (70%), Germany indicator, experiencing a rise of 26.6 and 23.2 (63.4%), Nicaragua (62.6%), Bangladesh (55.2%), percentage points, respectively. Mozambique (54.2%), Rwanda (54.1%), Costa Global Gender Gap Report 2023 14