For the 17th consecutive time, the World Economic Forum has named Iceland the most gender-equal country in the world.
This is according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2026, which was released earlier this week.
Iceland is the only country to have closed its gender gap by more than 90 percent and one of only four economies that have consistently been in the top 10 since the index's inception in 2006.
As Statista's Felix Richter reports, aside from Iceland, these are Finland, Norway and Sweden, with the former two making the top three for the third consecutive year.
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European economies have consistently filled most of the top 10 spots over the past two decades, with Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Moldova, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom having each featured at least once in the past 20 years.
Several countries from Sub-Saharan Africa also made it into the top 10 over the years, including South Africa, ranked sixth in 2009, and Lesotho (2009, 2010 and 2011. Rwanda was in the top 10 for eight consecutive years between 2014 and 2022, partly due to the fact that it has a
