Analytics, EU – Baltic States, Rating, Society

Latvia ranks 12th, moving up three places from last year's index. Lithuania is ranked 28th in the report, while Estonia is ranked 59th.

As usually, the top spots are taken by the Nordic countries – Finland has placed second, Norway – third, and Sweden – fourth. The Philippines is ranked fifth.

The Global Gender Gap Index 2013 rankings: comparisons with 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006

Source: weforum.org

The four Nordic countries that have consistently held the  highest positions in previous editions of the Global Gender  Gap Index continue to hold privileged positions. Iceland (1) holds the top spot for the fifth consecutive year and  therefore continues to be the country with the narrowest  gender gap in the world. Iceland’s overall score moves up due to improvements in the Economic Participation and  Opportunity and the Political Empowerment subindexes.

Finland (2) continues to hold the second position despite  slight losses in its overall score because of a decrease of  its Economic Participation and Opportunity score. Norway (3) follows next, with a small increase in its overall score.

Sweden (4) continues to hold the fourth position. Although no country has yet achieved gender equality,  all of the Nordic countries, with the exception of Denmark, have closed over 80% of the gender gap and thus serve  as models and useful benchmarks for international  comparison. While many global indexes tend to be tied  to income levels, thus providing an advantage to the high  income Nordic economies, the Global Gender Gap Index  is disassociated from the income and resource level of an  economy and instead seeks to measure how equitably the available income, resources and opportunities are  distributed between women and men. Despite this feature  of the Index, these countries emerge as top performers  and true leaders on gender equality.

The survey included four areas: politics, education, employment and health care.

The situation regarding gender equality remains the worst in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Chad, Syria and Yemen.