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Explained: How gender equal is India as per the 2022 Global Gender Gap Index?

India has approximately 662 million (or 66.2 crore) women and in 2022, its overall score improved slightly from 2021.

India's rank in the gender gap indexIndia's best performance is in the area of political representation of women this year. In pic: A woman worker at a silk factory after the government eased the Covid-induced lockdown restrictions in Agartala. (Express file photo by Abhishek Saha)

The Global Gender Gap Index for 2022 was released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) Wednesday, and it ranks India at 135 out of 146 countries. In 2021, India was ranked 140 out of 156 countries.

What is the Global Gender Gap Index?

The Global Gender Gap index “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)”. According to the WEF it is the longest-standing index, which tracks progress towards closing these gaps over time since its inception in 2006.

On each of the four sub-indices as well as on the overall index the GGG index provides scores between 0 and 1, where 1 shows full gender parity and 0 is complete imparity. “The cross-country comparisons aim to support the identification of the most effective policies to close gender gaps,” states the report.

Source: World Economic Forum

How has India fared on different sub-indices?

India has approximately 662 million (or 66.2 crore) women. In 2022, India’s overall score has improved from 0.625 (in 2021) to 0.629. “India’s (135th) global gender gap score has oscillated between 0.593 and 0.683 since the index was first compiled. In 2022, India scored 0.629, which is its seventh-highest score in the last 16 years,” states the report.

Here’s how it stands on different sub-indices:

1. Political Empowerment

This includes metrics such as the percentage of women in Parliament, the percentage of women in ministerial positions etc. Of all the sub-indices, this is where India ranks the highest (48th out of 146).

However, notwithstanding its rank, its score is quite low at 0.267. Some of the best ranking countries in this category score much better. For instance, Iceland is ranked 1 with a score of 0.874 and Bangladesh is ranked 9 with a score of 0.546.

Moreover, India’s score on this metric has worsened since last year – from 0.276 to 0.267. The silver lining is that despite reduction, India’s score is above the global average in this category.

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2. Economic Participation and Opportunity

This includes metrics such as the percentage of women who are part of the labour force, wage equality for similar work, earned income etc. Here, too, India ranks a lowly 143 out of the 146 countries in contention even though its score has improved over 2021 from 0.326 to 0.350. Last year, India was pegged at 151 out of the 156 countries ranked. India’s score is much lower than the global average, and only Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan are behind India on this metric.

3. Educational Attainment

This sub-index includes metrics such as literacy rate and the enrolment rates in primary, secondary and tertiary education. Here India ranks 107th out of 146, and its score has marginally worsened since last year. In 2021, India was ranked 114 out of 156.

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4. Health and Survival

This includes two metrics: the sex ratio at birth (in %) and healthy life expectancy (in years). In this metric, India is ranked the last (146) among all the countries. Its score hasn’t changed from 2021 when it was ranked 155th out of 156 countries.

Curated For You

Udit Misra is Senior Associate Editor at The Indian Express. Misra has reported on the Indian economy and policy landscape for the past two decades. He holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics and is a Chevening South Asia Journalism Fellow from the University of Westminster. Misra is known for explanatory journalism and is a trusted voice among readers not just for simplifying complex economic concepts but also making sense of economic news both in India and abroad. Professional Focus He writes three regular columns for the publication. ExplainSpeaking: A weekly explanatory column that answers the most important questions surrounding the economic and policy developments. GDP (Graphs, Data, Perspectives): Another weekly column that uses interesting charts and data to provide perspective on an issue dominating the news during the week. Book, Line & Thinker: A fortnightly column that for reviewing books, both new and old. Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025) His recent work focuses heavily on the weakening Indian Rupee, the global impact of U.S. economic policy under Donald Trump, and long-term domestic growth projections: Currency and Macroeconomics: "GDP: Anatomy of rupee weakness against the dollar" (Dec 19, 2025) — Investigating why the Rupee remains weak despite India's status as a fast-growing economy. "GDP: Amid the rupee's fall, how investors are shunning the Indian economy" (Dec 5, 2025). "Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 2025: How the winners explained economic growth" (Oct 13, 2025). Global Geopolitics and Trade: "Has the US already lost to China? Trump's policies and the shifting global order" (Dec 8, 2025). "The Great Sanctions Hack: Why economic sanctions don't work the way we expect" (Nov 23, 2025) — Based on former RBI Governor Urjit Patel's new book. "ExplainSpeaking: How Trump's tariffs have run into an affordability crisis" (Nov 20, 2025). Domestic Policy and Data: "GDP: New labour codes and opportunity for India's weakest states" (Nov 28, 2025). "ExplainSpeaking | Piyush Goyal says India will be a $30 trillion economy in 25 years: Decoding the projections" (Oct 30, 2025) — A critical look at the feasibility of high-growth targets. "GDP: Examining latest GST collections, and where different states stand" (Nov 7, 2025). International Economic Comparisons: "GDP: What ails Germany, world's third-largest economy, and how it could grow" (Nov 14, 2025). "On the loss of Europe's competitive edge" (Oct 17, 2025). Signature Style Udit Misra is known his calm, data-driven, explanation-first economics journalism. He avoids ideological posturing, and writes with the aim of raising the standard of public discourse by providing readers with clarity and understanding of the ground realities. You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @ieuditmisra           ... Read More

 

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