The UK tops the G7 rankings
The UK moved up one place in the index to 17th, reclaiming its spot at the top of the G7 rankings. The UK's female labour force participation rate and gender pay gap both improved, but the female unemployment rate rose significantly. Regional variation persists with the South West securing top spot and London falling to last place. However, the range between the best and worst performing regions has narrowed.
NEET drivers among young women
Analysis of young women who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) suggests low GCSE attainment significantly increases NEET risk for young women, with one in four women likely to be NEET due to poor attainment compared to one in five men. Health conditions remain a key driver, and the influence of mental health on NEET likelihood is rising for both genders. However, the overall effect of health conditions is less pronounced for young women than for young men.
Progress slows across the OECD
Despite all countries progressing since the index began in 2011, it has slowed this year, driven by a historic fall in full‑time employment for women and rising unemployment rates. The OECD average improvement was 0.6 points between 2023 to 2024, which is half the average annual improvement since 2011 and the smallest increase since COVID. Despite this gender disparities have reduced. The gender pay gap reduced significantly with the OECD average falling from 13.0% to 12.4%, the largest change in the last five years. The participation rate gap has also continued to close, falling from 8.8% to 8.5%.
Iceland tops Index rankings
The top five and bottom five countries are unchanged since the COVID pandemic. For the fifth year in a row Iceland, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Slovenia and Sweden constitute the top 5 countries within our index rankings and Mexico, Korea, Chile, Italy and Greece place the lowest. Our analysis suggests strong performance is being driven by building a relatively balanced working culture through supportive parental leave and childcare provision, which encourages women to remain within the workforce.
The UK’s Index results in depth
Gender gaps continue to narrow in the UK. There has been progress in increasing female participation rates with the rate gap to men decreasing from 7.8% in 2023 to 6.4% in 2024, the second largest decrease across the OECD. Additionally, the gender pay gap decreased slightly by 0.16 percentage points to 13.1%.
However, overall progress has slowed, as the female unemployment rate sharply increased from 3.5% in 2023 to 4.2% in 2024, spurred by rising unemployment among young women which increased from 9.5% to 11.8%. The UK also continues to perform poorly when it comes to number of women in full time employment, with a rate of 67.7%, 9.1 percentage points below the OECD average.
On the UK Regional Index, the South West took the top spot this year displacing Scotland into second place, and Northern Ireland placed in third. The South West’s improvement in Index score was driven by a major fall in the participation rate gap. Meanwhile, London placed last among the UK regions, due to a fall in female full-time employment reflecting higher demand for part time workers in the Capital.
Iceland ranks first on the Index across the OECD
Iceland ranks first on our Index, followed by Luxembourg and New Zealand. Iceland’s leading performance was driven by strong participation rate, at 85.1%, it is 12 percentage points above the OECD average (73.1%). This can be partly attributed to Iceland’s generous parental leave policies and childcare provision enabling women to maintain a career during motherhood.
Hungary and Australia have experienced the largest improvement in Index scores since the pandemic.
Canada continues to fall down the rankings, from 8th place in 2011 to 19th place in 2024. Canada’s drop in performance has meant the UK is now the best-performing G7 country.
You can explore our latest Index results and previous years’ results in the interactive data tool below.
Special article: The increase in young women Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET)
With over 947,000 16- to 24-year-olds in the UK classified as NEET, this year’s special article focuses on the drivers and challenges for young women using Labour Force Survey data from 2020 - 2024. The analysis indicates that for young women, low educational attainment is a stronger predictor of NEET, while for young men health issues are more closely linked with NEET status with one in four women likely to be NEET due to poor GCSE outcomes vs one in five men. However, the impact of both reinforces one another, meaning that young women that have both low educational attainment and health conditions will be four times as likely to be NEET compared to an average young woman (48.0% to 12.2%).
This highlights a one-size-fits-all policy approach to lowering NEET levels will be ineffective as it misses key drivers of NEET for different groups. Interventions should respond to underlying needs wherever they appear. For young women, strengthening post-16 progression routes for those with low attainment, particularly via targeted AI skills development and vocational training is more likely to reduce NEET numbers. Whereas targeted mental health and retention support may be more effective for young men.
“While the UK has regained its position as the highest‑ranking G7 economy for women in work, the story beneath the headline is more complex. Rising female unemployment, especially among young women, points to underlying weaknesses in our labour market at a time when AI is reshaping the economy and the skills needed.”
Carol Stubbings
UK and EMEA Managing Partner at PwC
“This year’s Index shows both the scale of progress since 2011 and how fragile that progress has become. The rise in young women becoming NEET, often driven by the intersection of health and educational barriers, mirrors wider pressures on women’s employment across the OECD. Crucially, the analysis shows these risks don’t just add up, they compound.”
Alia Qamar
Senior Economist at PwC UK
Greater integration has the potential not only to boost productivity and economic growth, but also to enhance economic diversity, reduce income inequality, improve adaptability to demographic shifts, and strengthen the overall skills base.
Note: In this year’s report, we present the latest Index results using 2024 data. A time lag in data availability across all 33 countries in our Index means this is the latest annual data available at the time of publication. When we refer to the latest results, we mean results based on 2024 data. (Similarly, our 2025 report provided the latest Index update using 2023 data, and so on). Our productivity analysis is based on data as of 2024 and reported in nominal terms.
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