Gender Data:
Closing the Gap
You cannot fix what you cannot measure. Gender data reveals who is left behind — and shows policymakers where to act.
57%
of gender data needed to track SDG progress is available (2025)
27.2%
of seats in national parliaments held by women (January 2025)
102
countries have never had a woman Head of State or Government
Data
The Womanstats Project
The WomanStats Project is a team of approximately twelve undergraduate research assistants, seven graduate research assistants, thirteen principal investigators, and over 120 former student assistants. We are dedicated to the continual expansion of the WomanStats Database, as well as the pursuit of our research agenda assessing the relationship between the situation and security of women, and the dynamics between security, stability, and the behavior of the state.
Why gender data matters
Imagine a hospital that treats every patient the same way — regardless of symptoms. Poor outcomes would follow. Global development works the same way. Without gender-disaggregated data, policies treat women and men identically. Yet their realities often differ sharply.
Gender data reveals those differences. It shows who earns less, who goes hungry more, who faces violence at home. It tracks who participates in politics, who owns land, and who accesses healthcare. Without this information, governments cannot design effective programmes.
The cost of inaction is real. UN Women estimates that investing in women’s equality could add USD 342 trillion to the global economy by 2050. Meanwhile, only 57% of the gender data needed to track SDG progress is currently available.
The gender data gap is a policy gap. In 2024, only 26% of 121 countries had comprehensive systems to track spending on gender equality. This figure has not improved since 2021.
A brief history of gender data
For most of history, official statistics ignored women. Early censuses recorded household heads — typically men. Women appeared as dependants, not individuals. Their work, health, and civic life went largely uncounted.
The feminist movements of the 1960s and 70s began to change this. Researchers demanded disaggregated data. They challenged the assumption that one male respondent could represent an entire household. Slowly, national statistical offices started collecting sex-disaggregated information.
The 1995 Beijing Platform for Action was a turning point. Governments committed to producing gender statistics. The Millennium Development Goals (2000–2015) introduced specific targets for women and girls. Yet data coverage remained thin — especially in low-income countries.
The SDG era (2015–present) raised the bar further. SDG 5 on gender equality includes 14 dedicated indicators. For the first time, gender data became a global accountability tool. Today the field is expanding rapidly — but critical gaps remain.
1995
Beijing Platform for Action — governments commit to gender statistics
2000
Beijing Platform for Action — governments commit to gender statistics2012
MDGs introduce targets on women, education and health
2015
SDG 5 makes gender equality a global accountability framework
2025
UN Gender Snapshot: no SDG 5 indicator fully achieved
Where the gaps are biggest
Progress is real — but uneven. Some areas remain stubbornly undercounted. Others have never been measured at all.
Only 13% of countries dedicate resources to regular gender statistics production. Without investment in national statistical systems, these gaps will persist beyond 2030.
The Gender Data Outlook Index (UN Women & PARIS21, 2024) assessed 83 countries. The average score was 0.53 out of 1.0. Countries are, on average, only halfway toward adequate gender data systems.
Key organisations leading the way
Several institutions drive the global gender data agenda. Each approaches the challenge differently.
UN Women — Data Hub
UN Women coordinates the “Making Every Woman and Girl Count” initiative. It publishes the annual Gender Snapshot, tracking SDG progress across all 17 goals. Its Gender Data Outlook Index benchmarks national statistical capacity.
OECD Gender Data Portal
The OECD tracks gender gaps in education, employment, health, and governance across member and partner countries. In September 2025, it launched the OECD Dashboard on Gender Gaps — a new country-comparison tool covering all OECD nations.
World Bank Gender Data Portal
The World Bank offers 1,000+ gender indicators with interactive visualisations across five themes: demography, education, health, economic opportunity, and public life. Data is updated quarterly and freely downloadable.
Data2X
Data2X is a technical platform focused on filling critical gender data gaps. It partners with national statistical offices and international agencies to build better measurement tools — especially for unpaid work, health, and security.
PARIS21 — Gender Data
PARIS21 strengthens statistical capacity in developing countries. Together with UN Women, it developed the Gender Data Outlook Index to guide investments in national gender statistics systems.
Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)
The IPU maintains the most comprehensive database on women in national parliaments. As of January 2025, women hold 27.2% of parliamentary seats globally — up 4.9 points from 2015, but far from parity.
Women, Culture and Peace: a data frontier
Most gender data frameworks focus on economics, health, and politics. Cultural participation remains largely unmeasured. Yet culture shapes how societies form identities, resolve conflict, and build peace.
Women are central to cultural and peacebuilding processes. Nevertheless, their roles are rarely captured in data. This gap weakens the evidence base for cultural policy and peace processes alike.
Women, Culture and Peace (WCP)
The WCP framework connects the UN’s Women, Peace and Security agenda with cultural peacebuilding. It supports research and data collection on women’s cultural leadership, creative economies, and their contributions to peaceful societies. WCP fills a gap that mainstream gender data frameworks have not yet addressed.
Culture as a future SDG. Countries are preparing a post-2030 development framework for 2030–2045. A standalone Culture SDG would require new gender-disaggregated data on arts participation, cultural heritage, and creative economies. WCP supports this agenda.
Looking Forward
The 2025 Gender Snapshot confirms progress — but warns that no SDG 5 indicator is fully achieved. The post-2030 framework offers a chance to build stronger, more inclusive gender data systems. Measuring culture, peace, and women’s leadership must be part of that agenda. Better data leads to better policy. Better policy leads to more equal and peaceful societies.
Sources
- UN Women & DESA, Progress on the SDGs: The Gender Snapshot 2025. unwomen.org/en/resources/gender-snapshot
- UN Women, Gender equality in 2025: Gains, gaps, and the USD 342 trillion choice. unwomen.org/en/articles/explainer/gender-equality-in-2025-gains-gaps-and-the-342t-choice
- UN Women & PARIS21, Gender Data Outlook 2024. data.unwomen.org/publications/gender-data-outlook-2024
- OECD, Dashboard on Gender Gaps (launched September 2025). oecd.org/en/data/dashboards/gender-dashboard.html
- OECD, Gender Equality in a Changing World: Taking Stock and Moving Forward (2025). doi.org/10.1787/e808086f-en
- World Bank, Gender Data Portal. genderdata.worldbank.org
- Inter-Parliamentary Union, Women in Parliament 2025. ipu.org/women-in-parliament
- Data2X. https://data2x.org
- UN Security Council Resolution 1325, Women, Peace and Security (2000). unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/women-peace-security
- RYB Global Development, Women, Culture and Peace (WCP) framework. redyellowblue.org/women-culture-and-peace/