The Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Index 2023/24

The Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Index 2023/24 ranks 177 countries based on 13 indicators across three dimensions: inclusion, justice, and security. The report finds that women's status is more strongly correlated with a nation's peace, democratic health, and climate change preparedness than with its GDP. It highlights extreme global disparities, with Denmark ranking highest and Afghanistan lowest. The report also examines the escalating threat of political violence against women—physical, sexual, and digital—and provides subnational analyses for Colombia and Ethiopia to show how women's status varies within national borders.

• The 2023/24 WPS Index reveals extreme global disparities in women's status, with Denmark ranking first (score 0.932) and Afghanistan ranking last (score 0.286).
• Women's status is more strongly correlated with a country's human development, climate change preparedness, and state resilience than with its national income (GDP).
• The Fragile States group is the worst-performing category overall; on average, 20% of women in these countries have experienced recent intimate partner violence and 60% live near conflict.
• The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region shows the widest range of performance and the lowest averages for women's employment, parliamentary representation, and access to justice.
• Global financial inclusion for women increased from 56% in 2014 to 71% in 2021, driven largely by the proliferation of digital finance platforms.
• Political violence targeting women (PVTW) is used as a tactic to silence women and marginalize them from power, with Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Myanmar recording the highest number of events in 2022.
• Technology-facilitated gender-based violence is increasing, with 73% of women journalists in a 2020 global survey reporting such violence during their careers.
• In 2022, approximately 600 million women (15% of the global female population) lived within 50 kilometers of armed conflict, more than double the levels seen in the 1990s.
• Subnational analysis in Colombia shows wide variation, with Santander scoring highest (.783) and Casanare lowest (.534), the latter having 80% of women living near armed conflict.
• Subnational analysis in Ethiopia reveals that the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region (SNNPR) performed best (.541), while Afar performed worst (.389), with women in Afar averaging less than one year of schooling.

APA

Peace Research Institute Oslo (2023). The Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Index 2023/24. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/49fc728b-2f9f-412c-b798-cff36501bce3/WPS-Index-full-report.pdf?inline=true

Chicago

Peace Research Institute Oslo. The Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Index 2023/24. 2023. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/49fc728b-2f9f-412c-b798-cff36501bce3/WPS-Index-full-report.pdf?inline=true.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Peace Research Institute Oslo |title=The Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Index 2023/24 |date=2023 |url=https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/49fc728b-2f9f-412c-b798-cff36501bce3/WPS-Index-full-report.pdf?inline=true |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{peaceresearchinstituteoslo2023women, author = {{Peace Research Institute Oslo}}, title = {{The Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Index 2023/24}}, institution = {Peace Research Institute Oslo}, year = {2023}, url = {https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/49fc728b-2f9f-412c-b798-cff36501bce3/WPS-Index-full-report.pdf?inline=true}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }