Since 2006, the Global Gender Equality Report has revealed different countries' attitudes toward gender equality and where the challenge is most acute. For the first time, the 2015 report also shows changes in attitudes that reveal the economic and social progress slowly being made. Through collated public opinion data from 24 countries, it’s clear which countries have the most progressive attitudes toward gender equality — and Sweden tops the list.

All the Scandinavian countries rank high each year, largely because of long-standing equality in education and health and the large proportion of women in the labor force, with small salary gaps and strong representation in high-skilled jobs. This is how the attitudes have changed historically: Celebrating strong Swedish women According to this year’s data, not only do Swedes have the most progressive attitude toward gender equality in the world, but there is virtually no gap between the views of men and women.
That’s a stark difference from Asian countries like China, Hong Kong and Singapore, or in the Middle Eastern countries where data for individual genders isn’t made available. For the specific data, see: Global report: attitudes to gender