Global

It is critical to consider the pace of recent change on five issues that affect girls and women’s lives in the context of overall levels of gender equality. This scatterplot combines these two aspects of measuring progress, using country scores on the 2019 SDG Gender Index and Bending the Curve’s trend analysis.

Above the horizontal line are countries with relatively high levels of gender equality. Some have been slow to make progress in recent years (top left quadrant): this may be because countries are close to or have met targets (e.g. girls’ secondary education, workplace equality laws); others (top right quadrant) have made faster progress.

Below the horizontal line are countries with lower overall levels of gender equality. Many are managing to progress despite limited resources (bottom right quadrant), in some cases due to rapid economic growth or government investment in gender equality.

Other countries (bottom left quadrant) have low levels of gender equality and are progressing slowly or backsliding on these five issues critical to girls and women’s lives.