Report/ Albania worsens in gender equality index

Albania ranks 36th out of 148 economies in the Gender Equality Report 2025, published by the World Economic Forum, with an overall gender equality score of 0.763 (meaning it closes 76.3% of the gender gap), marking a deterioration compared to the score of 0.780 (78.0%) and the 23rd place it occupied in 2024.

The index is based on four main sub-indexes: “Economic Participation and Opportunities”, “Education”, “Health and Protection”, and “Political Empowerment”, where each sub-index includes specific indicators such as the wage gap and employment rate (economic), the rate of inclusion in different levels of education (education), the gender ratio in life expectancy and health (health), and the percentage of women in parliament and ministerial positions (politics).

Each indicator is first measured as the ratio between women and men on a scale of 0–1, then averaged with equal weight to give the final index score, which expresses the percentage of gap closure.

Albania's deterioration in ranking was influenced by the political empowerment indicator: This subindex fell from 0.419 (instead of 30 in 2024) to 0.349 (instead of 42 in 2025), being the main contributor to the decrease of 13 positions.

Women in Parliament have a gap of 0.556 (instead of 40), unchanged, but other countries have improved their percentages, which is why Albania ranks lower in relative terms. Women in ministerial positions fell by 16.7 percentage points, from around 0.857 in 2024 to 0.714 in 2025, significantly lowering the sub-index score.

The years a woman has been at the head of state remain 0, unchanged, but this indicator has a small weight in the total sub-index.

Education had a low impact on the deterioration, with the sub-index falling from 0.958 to 0.955 due to primary education enrollment decreasing by 5.9 percentage points and secondary education enrollment decreasing by 6.8 percentage points.

Other sub-indices Economic Participation and Opportunities and Health and Protection recorded small improvements.

The indicator where Albania scores the weakest is Political Empowerment, with an index value of 0.349 (closing 34.9% of the gap).

The indicator where Albania performs best is Health and Protection, with an index of 0.963 (closing 96.3% of the gap), as well as education (95.5% of the gap).

The Economic Participation and Opportunities indicator closes 78.7% of the gap.

Within the Western Balkans region, Albania (36th out of 148 economies) ranks behind Serbia, but ahead of other countries in the region, as follows:

Serbia 26th
Albania 36th
Bosnia and Herzegovina 73rd
Montenegro 84th
North Macedonia 90th

In Europe, Albania ranks 20th out of 40 countries. Albania is better ranked than Italy, which is 35th in Europe. The leadership in Europe is held by Iceland, Finland, Norway, and the United Kingdom.

RANKINGS

The report assesses the gender gap in 148 economies using four main sub-indices: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Education, Health and Protection, and Political Empowerment.

The results measured the degree of gap closure on a scale of 0-1, where 1 represents complete equality, and converted these values ​​into percentages of gap closure.

The global results show that the gender gap has closed on average to 68.8% in 2025, an increase of 0.3 percentage points from 68.4% in 2024 for the constant group of 145 economies maintained in both editions.

When analyzing the coverage of the 100 economies that have been in the index since 2006, the gap has narrowed from 68.6% to 69.0%, an improvement of 0.4 percentage points.

High-income economies continue to progress faster, with an average of nearly 74.3% of the gap closed, while low-income economies reach around 66.4%.

The European and North American regions dominate the high-performance lists, while Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia lag behind in some indicators.

Iceland leads the way, closing the gap at 92.6%—a first place finish for 16 consecutive years—followed by Finland (87.9%), Norway (86.3%) and the United Kingdom (83.8%), all of which close the gap by more than 80%. Europe occupies eight of the top ten, with representatives from outside Europe being New Zealand (82.7%) and Namibia (81.1%).

At the bottom of the ranking, the economies that close 60% of the gap are mainly developing countries, with countries like Pakistan (56.7%), Sudan (57.0%) and Chad (57.1%) seeing the lowest levels of gender equality.

The report highlights the need to accelerate progress on women's economic empowerment policies, create supportive legal frameworks, and invest in social care as key elements to overcome the current slowdown. In particular, strengthening political representation and access to affordable care will be crucial to achieving sustainable equality in the decades ahead./ Monitor