Iceland has held on to the top spot on the Global Gender Gap Index for the fourth year in a row, as the country that has the narrowest gender gap, the results of which were released last week.

Iceland is followed by Finland, Norway and Sweden. The Nordic countries have consistently held the top spots but this year Finland and Norway exchanged spots.

The report states that while no country has achieved full gender equality, all of the Nordic countries, minus Denmark, have closed over 80 percent of the gender gap and therefore stand as examples for the rest of the world.

Iceland, as Norway and Sweden, has over 1.5 women for every man enrolled at university.  Women in the Nordic countries also have very high healthy life expectancies. On average they live three to four healthy years longer than men.

According to the report, Iceland has closed 73 percent of its gender gap in the political empowerment sub-index compared to Saudi Arabia, the lowest-ranking country, which has closed none.

Women in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden were also among the first in the world to be awarded the right to vote.

The Global Gender Gap Index has been published by the World Economic Forum since 2006. This year’s report covers 135 major and emerging economies.

ZR