(NewsNation) — Over the past year, there’s been “tepid progress” across the world when it comes to closing the gender gap, according to a new report from the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report, released Tuesday, tracks gender parity across four areas: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment.

In 2023, the overall gender gap between men and women across the world closed 0.3% compared to the previous year, the report found. That brings the global gender parity score back to pre-pandemic levels, with 68.4% of the gap closed.

“Recent years have been marked by major setbacks for gender parity globally, with previous
progress disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on women and girls in education and the
workforce, followed by economic and geopolitical crises,” Saadia Zahidi, managing director at the WEF, wrote in the report.

At the current rate, it will take 131 years to reach what the WEF calls “full parity.”

Across most world regions, men and women are about equal when it comes to education and health outcomes, according to the report. However, there remain wide gender gaps in economic participation and political leadership.

Southern Asia ranked last among world regions on the economic participation and opportunity index, having closed just 37.2% of the gender gap. North America topped that category with 77.2% of the gap closed.

Europe led all regions across the other three indexes and has closed 76.3% of the gender gap overall.

Iceland topped the list as the most gender-equal country in the world for the 14th consecutive year. On the other end, Afghanistan ranked last among the 146 countries examined.

The United States fell to the 43rd spot — down from 27th the year prior. Much of that decline is due to the WEF’s “political empowerment” index, which this year took into account the number of women in equivalent parliamentary and ministerial positions, as well as recent heads of state.

Overall, the gender gap has only improved by 4.1 percentage points since the index’s inception in 2006, the report noted. 

“Accelerating progress towards gender parity will not only improve outcomes for women and girls but benefit economies and societies more widely, reviving growth, boosting innovation and increasing resilience,” Zahidi wrote.