“The Global Gender Gap Index was first introduced by the World Economic Forum in 2006 as a framework for capturing the magnitude of gender-based disparities and tracking their progress over time. The Index benchmarks national gender gaps on economic, education, health and political criteria, and provides country rankings that allow for effective comparisons across regions and income groups. The rankings are designed to create global awareness of the challenges posed by gender gaps and the opportunities created by reducing them. The methodology and quantitative analysis behind the rankings are intended to serve as a basis for designing effective measures for reducing gender gaps. Last year’s edition marked the 10th anniversary of the Index and examined the changing patterns of gender-based inequities around the world over a full decade’s worth of data. This year’s 11th edition continues to build on the well-established strengths of the Report while adapting a number of elements—namely, the Index’s threshold for calculating gender gaps in estimated earned income, the Report’s regional classification, and visualization of results—to evolve the Global Gender Gap Index for its second decade. The first part of this chapter reviews the underlying concepts employed in creating the Global Gender Gap Index and outlines the methods used to calculate it. The second part presents the 2016 rankings, overall trends, regional performance and notable country cases. It also provides information on progress over time and progress within income groups. Next, the Report lays out the economic case for gender parity, with a focus on the growing evidence of inter-linkages between gender gaps and the future economic prospects and resilience of industries and countries. The fourth part of this chapter takes a deeper look at gender parity as a key element of human capital in countries all throughout the world, examining global patterns, contextual factors, rates of change and proposals to prepare for the future. The Country Profiles contained in Part 2 of this Report give a more detailed picture of the relative strengths and weaknesses of each country’s performance compared with that of other nations and relative to its own past performance. The first page of each profile contains key demographic and economic indicators as well as detailed information on the country’s performance in both 2016 and in the year in which it was first featured in the Report. The second page of the Country Profiles highlights more than 70 gender-related indicators that provide a fuller context for the country’s performance. These indicators include information on workforce participation, economic leadership, access to assets and technology, political leadership, family, the care economy, education and skills, and health-related factors.”