Now in its 20th edition, the Global Gender Gap Index ranks the Grand Duchy 42nd out of 145 countries, sandwiched between Liberia and Panama. Using a scoring range from 0 to 1, where 1 means gender parity, Luxembourg scored 0.752, up from 0.745.
That marks a jump of eight places, up from 50th in 2025. It still remains, however, the worst performer among its neighbours, with Germany ranking ninth, France 22nd, and Belgium hovering at 33rd.
To benchmark progress, the index takes into account four dimensions: health, political empowerment, economic participation and opportunity, and education.
Luxembourg shines particularly bright in educational attainment, keeping its number-one spot with a perfect score of 1, and parity across all education-related sub-dimensions, from literacy to school enrolment.
Where Luxembourg slips is health and survival; here it places 98th, with a strong gender gap in life expectancy. While this rank is deceiving, in absolute terms, its score remains high at 0.965.
The remaining two dimensions, economic participation and opportunity as well as political empowerment, rank at 38th and 56th respectively.
The political empowerment score, at 0.290, is particularly low due to the lack of female heads of state. Representation is however higher when it comes to women in parliament and in ministerial positions, where Luxembourg ranks 40th and 31st respectively.
Globally, the lead is held by Iceland, which has kept the crown since 2009. In 2026, the Nordic island is followed by Finland, Norway, Namibia, and the UK. At the other end of the spectrum, in last place, sits Chad at 145th, preceded by Iran, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Algeria.
In the report's preface, it is underlined that while these past two decades show progress in closing gender gaps, the rate at which it is happening is slow, underlining that: "global parity stands 120 years away." Twenty years on, Iceland remains the only candidate to reach a parity rate of over 90%.
The report describes an era of "profound transformation", in which closing the gender gap is all the more fundamental as economies are reshaped by AI, climate change, and shifting energy landscapes.
There is some encouragement, though: Every country in the top 10 of this year's edition has closed at least 81% of the gender gap.
