The world’s best countries for women in terms of gender equality have been announced. We take a look at the updated results
Denmark is the best country to be a woman according to the latest academic report on women’s status and empowerment worldwide.
The Women Peace and Security (WPS) Index scores and ranks 178 countries and territories in terms of women’s inclusion, justice and security.
European nations performed well – blocking out the top five – with Denmark followed by Switzerland, Sweden, Finland and Luxembourg.
“Women’s inclusion, justice, and security are not just women’s issues. When women are doing well, everyone in society is doing well, and our data empirically back that up.”
– Elena Ortiz, GIWPS
At the other end of the WPS Index, Afghanistan was ranked the worst country to be a woman following the Taliban takeover in 2021. The next worst performers were Yemen, the Central African Republic, Congo and the DR Congo.
The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, in partnership with the Peace Research Institute of Oslo, periodically updates its WPS Index. The index ranks 178 countries and territories by women’s equality.
The index assesses women’s inclusion in society, sense of security and exposure to discrimination – key indicators of how women are faring in different communities and cultures. This is the fourth edition of the WPS Index since its launch in 2017.
10 best countries for women
Nine of the 10 best countries for women are all located in Europe and are all classed as developing countries.
- Denmark
- Switzerland
- Sweden
- Finland
- Luxembourg
- Iceland
- Norway
- Austria
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
“In Denmark, Norway and Sweden, both fathers and mothers have access to at least a year of paid parental leave, also helping to even out childcare responsibilities.”
– GIWPS
10 worst countries for women
Of the bottom 10 countries, nine are classified by the World Bank as fragile states. Seven are located in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Afghanistan
- Yemen
- Central African Rep
- Congo
- DR Congo
- South Sudan
- Burundi
- Syria
- Eswatini
- Somalia
“Afghan women wake up each day to no jobs, no education and no autonomy over their lives. This report should serve as a wakeup call to world leaders that a nation of women is imprisoned.”
– Torunn L Tryggestad, Peace Research Institute of Oslo
Assessing gender equality
The index uses 13 indicators to assess the world’s best countries for women in terms of gender equality. These indicators fall into three categories: inclusion, security and justice.
Inclusion
- Education: average years of education among women aged 25 and over
- Financial inclusion: percentage of women aged 15 and over who have a bank account, joint bank account or use a mobile banking app
- Employment: percentage of women aged 25 and older who are employed
- Cellphone use: percentage of women aged 15 and older who have access to a mobile phone
- Parliamentary representation: percentage of seats held by women across all houses of national parliaments
Justice
- Absence of legal discrimination: extent to which laws and regulations differentiate between women and men or protect women’s opportunities across 35 aspects of life and work
- Access to justice extent to which women can exercise justice by bringing cases before the courts without risk to their personal safety, participating in a fair trial and seeking redress if public authorities violate their rights
- Maternal mortality: number of maternal deaths due to pregnancy-related causes per 100,000 live births
- Son bias: where the ratio of male to female births exceed the natural rate
Security
- Intimate partner violence: percentage of women who experienced physical or sexual violence committed by their partner in the 12 months preceding the survey
- Community safety: percentage of women aged 15 and older who responded “Yes” to the question “Do you feel safe walking alone at night in the city or area where you live?”
- Political violence targeting women: number of political violence events targeting women per 100,000 women
- Proximity to conflict: Percentage of women who lived within 50km of at least one armed conflict event in 2022
“Women are critical to achieving sustainable peace”
– GIWPS
insights
The global report draws on recognised data sources to measure women’s inclusion, justice and security in 178 countries. The latest edition suggests that the global average WPS Index score increased by 3%.
Regionally, East Asia and the Pacific and the Middle East and North Africa saw the most improvement. At a country level, 20 nations saw score improvements of at least 10%. Bahrain, Vietnam and Egypt recorded the largest improvements.
Conversely, 13 countries registered a score deterioration of at least 10%, with Eswatini, El Salvador and Burkina Faso recording the largest declines.
Across the indicators, women’s financial inclusion and absence of legal discrimination have improved the most globally, while women’s employment and proximity to conflict have seen the most significant
regression.
Denmark is the world’s best country for women. The 10 best countries for women are all in Europe, with New Zealand, in 10th, the highest-ranked non-European country. The UK is 26th.
Bahrain has seen the most improvement on the WPS Index since 2017, with a 24% increase in its overall index score and an increase from 119th position to 56th.
The main indicators driving this improvement are financial inclusion and parliamentary representation. The proportion of women with access to their own bank accounts rose from 67% in 2017 to 75% in 2023. As such, Bahrain now has the highest rate of women’s business participation in the
MENA region.
New Zealand (10th) and Australia (11th) are the highest-placed Asia-Pacific countries. Singapore (15th) is the highest-placed Asian country followed by Japan (23rd). The UAE (22nd) is the highest-placed country in the Middle East.
Canada (17th) is the best country to be a woman in North America, followed by the USA in 37th. The highest-ranked country in South America is Argentina (5oth).
Seychelles (43rd) is the best country to be a woman in Africa followed by Cabo Verde (64th).
World’s best countries for women: ranking
The ranking below reflects the average of each country’s scores across all 13 metrics on the WPS Index. All countries and territories are ranked on a 0-1 scale. The highest possible score is 1 (equality) and the lowest is 0 (inequality). No country scores perfectly.
| Rank | Country | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denmark | .932 |
| 2 | Switzerland | .928 |
| 3 | Sweden | .926 |
| 4 | Finland | .924 |
| 5 | Iceland | .924 |
| 6 | Luxembourg | .924 |
| 7 | Norway | .920 |
| 8 | Austria | .911 |
| 9 | Netherlands | .908 |
| 10 | New Zealand | .904 |
| 11 | Australia | .902 |
| 12 | Belgium | .902 |
| 13 | Estonia | .892 |
| 14 | Ireland | .892 |
| 15 | Singapore | .887 |
| 16 | Lithuania | .886 |
| 17 | Canada | .885 |
| 18 | Czechia | .884 |
| 19 | Portugal | .877 |
| 20 | Latvia | .872 |
| 21 | Germany | .871 |
| 22 | UAE | .868 |
| 23 | Japan | .866 |
| 24 | France | .864 |
| 25 | Croatia | .862 |
| 26 | UK | .860 |
| 27 | Poland | .859 |
| 28 | Spain | .859 |
| 29 | Slovakia | .856 |
| 30 | South Korea | .848 |
| 31 | Malta | .846 |
| 32 | Hungary | .835 |
| 33 | Serbia | .835 |
| 34 | Italy | .827 |
| 35 | Bulgaria | .826 |
| 36 | Slovenia | .824 |
| 37 | USA | .823 |
| 38 | Taiwan | .818 |
| 39 | Georgia | .812 |
| 40 | Hong Kong | .812 |
| 41 | Montenegro | .808 |
| 42 | Romania | .800 |
| 43 | Seychelles | .799 |
| 44 | North Macedonia | .798 |
| 45 | Albania | .796 |
| 46 | Mongolia | .794 |
| 47 | Barbados | .779 |
| 48 | Armenia | .772 |
| 49 | Guyana | .769 |
| 50 | Argentina | .768 |
| 51 | Greece | .766 |
| 52 | Thailand | .764 |
| 53 | Moldova | .758 |
| 54 | Panama | .757 |
| 55 | Bosnia & Herzegovina | .754 |
| 56 | Bahrain | .752 |
| 57 | Russia | .752 |
| 58 | Turkmenistan | .750 |
| 59 | Uruguay | .748 |
| 60 | Costa Rica | .743 |
| 61 | Sri Lanka | .743 |
| 62 | Kuwait | .742 |
| 63 | Cyprus | .739 |
| 64 | Cabo Verde | .738 |
| 65 | Fiji | .738 |
| 66 | Malaysia | .738 |
| 67 | Saudi Arabia | .737 |
| 68 | Chile | .736 |
| 69 | Belarus | .733 |
| 70 | Kazakhstan | .729 |
| 71 | Trinidad & Tobago | .721 |
| 72 | Maldives | .720 |
| 73 | Nicaragua | .717 |
| 74 | Peru | .717 |
| 75 | Oman | .715 |
| 76 | Samoa | .711 |
| 77 | Jamaica | .710 |
| 78 | Vietnam | .707 |
| 79 | Lao | .704 |
| 80 | Israel | .703 |
| 81 | Qatar | .703 |
| 82 | Bhutan | .700 |
| 83 | China | .700 |
| 84 | Indonesia | .700 |
| 85 | Tonga | .697 |
| 86 | Bolivia | .696 |
| 87 | Suriname | .694 |
| 88 | Puerto Rico | .692 |
| 89 | Paraguay | .691 |
| 90 | Tajikistan | .690 |
| 91 | South Africa | .688 |
| 92 | Jordan | .679 |
| 93 | Mauritius | .678 |
| 94 | Uzbekistan | .674 |
| 95 | Kyrgyzstan | .673 |
| 96 | Tunisia | .669 |
| 97 | Azerbaijan | .667 |
| 98 | Dominican rep | .666 |
| 99 | Türkiye | .665 |
| 100 | Kosovo | .664 |
| 101 | Solomon Islands | .664 |
| 102 | Timor-Leste | .664 |
| 103 | Rwanda | .663 |
| 104 | Botswana | .659 |
| 105 | Belize | .657 |
| 106 | Ecuador | .655 |
| 107 | Tanzania | .652 |
| 108 | Ghana | .651 |
| 109 | Sao Tome & Principe | .648 |
| 110 | Cambodia | .645 |
| 111 | Egypt | .645 |
| 112 | Nepal | .644 |
| 113 | Vanuatu | .644 |
| 114 | Morocco | .637 |
| 115 | Brazil | .630 |
| 116 | Venezuela | .628 |
| 117 | Ukraine | .626 |
| 118 | Algeria | .622 |
| 119 | Equatorial Guinea | .619 |
| 120 | Senegal | .619 |
| 121 | Philippines | .612 |
| 122 | Honduras | .610 |
| 123 | Libya | .610 |
| 124 | Namibia | .610 |
| 125 | Lesotho | .605 |
| 126 | Zimbabwe | .604 |
| 127 | Angola | .598 |
| 128 | India | .595 |
| 129 | Lebanon | .595 |
| 130 | Togo | .595 |
| 131 | Bangladesh | .593 |
| 132 | Gabon | .593 |
| 133 | Colombia | .582 |
| 134 | Mozambique | .580 |
| 135 | Gambia | .575 |
| 136 | Côte d’Ivoire | .573 |
| 137 | Guatemala | .569 |
| 138 | Benin | .566 |
| 139 | El Salvador | .566 |
| 140 | Iran | .557 |
| 141 | Zambia | .556 |
| 142 | Mexico | .551 |
| 143 | Uganda | .544 |
| 144 | Sierra Leone | .543 |
| 145 | Guinea | .539 |
| 146 | Ethiopia | .521 |
| 147 | Malawi | .521 |
| 148 | Comoros | .519 |
| 149 | Kenya | .511 |
| 150 | Congo | .507 |
| 151 | Mauritania | .506 |
| 152 | Madagascar | .505 |
| 153 | Djibouti | .504 |
| 154 | Liberia | .500 |
| 155 | Papua New Guinea | .487 |
| 156 | Guinea-Bissau | .483 |
| 157 | Palestine | .483 |
| 158 | Burkina Faso | .481 |
| 159 | Mali | .481 |
| 160 | Pakistan | .481 |
| 161 | Cameroon | .466 |
| 162 | Nigeria | .465 |
| 163 | Chad | .462 |
| 164 | Sudan | .460 |
| 165 | Myanmar | .451 |
| 166 | Niger | .442 |
| 167 | Haiti | .431 |
| 168 | Iraq | .424 |
| 169 | Somalia | .417 |
| 170 | Eswatini | .415 |
| 171 | Syria | .407 |
| 172 | Burundi | .394 |
| 173 | South Sudan | .388 |
| 174 | DR Congo | .384 |
| 175 | Congo | .384 |
| 176 | Central African Rep | .378 |
| 177 | Yemen | .287 |
| 178 | Afghanistan | .286 |
The WPS Index is published by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security with support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The full report can be accessed here.
Enjoyed this post? pin it for later…
