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The G20Evidence into Action

Closing paper: comparing the 19 G20 economies and what to do with the data

19Sovereign economies · 13 indicators · 5 dimensions

The binding gap differs by band. In the Visible band the weakest dimension is most often enterprise and legal rights (4 of 7). In the Emerging band the weakest dimension is most often institutional visibility (5 of 8). In the Partial band the weakest dimension is most often institutional visibility (3 of 3). In the Hidden band the weakest dimension is most often institutional visibility (1 of 1).

ScopeG20 sovereign members

Series position99 · Closing

Published30 September 2026

G20 research overviewClosing paper

D4 MEAN 0.624 · S7 INDIA +18.3 POINTS

Reported research measures. Animation reveals the graphic; it does not represent change over time.

The 19 sovereign members · EU and African Union are not scored

Argentina

Australia

Brazil

Canada

China

France

Germany

India

Indonesia

Italy

Japan

Mexico

Russia

Saudi Arabia

South Africa

South Korea

Turkiye

United Kingdom

United States

Abstract

The same 13-indicator index applied to the 19 sovereign members of the G20; the European Union and African Union are not scored

The 19 economies fall into four bands: Visible (80 and above): United Kingdom, France, Australia, Canada, Germany, United States, Italy (81.0 to 91.1); Emerging (65 to 79): Argentina, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, China, South Korea, Russia, Japan (67.7 to 78.9); Partial (50 to 64): Indonesia, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia (51.8 to 64.5); Hidden (below 50): India (47.5 to 47.5). Across seven weighting schemes 14 of the 19 economies keep their rank within two places: United Kingdom, France, Australia, Canada, Germany, United States, Italy, South Africa, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, India.

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Summary of dimension scores

Dim table
Dim	Mean	Median	Lowest	Highest
D1	0.798	0.851	0.452 (Saudi Arabia)	0.961 (Australia)
D2	0.867	0.915	0.578 (India)	0.962 (United States)
D3	0.694	0.723	0.362 (India)	0.913 (France)
D4	0.624	0.640	0.331 (India)	0.922 (Canada)
D5	0.765	0.764	0.563 (Japan)	1.000 (Mexico)

Rank under seven weighting schemes

Economy table
Economy	Base	Equal	Entropy weight	First principa	Labour-heavy	Institution-he	Drop D5
United Kingdom	1	1	1	1	1	1	2
France	2	2	2	2	2	2	1
Australia	3	3	4	3	3	3	3
Canada	4	4	3	4	4	4	4
Germany	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
United States	6	6	6	6	6	6	6
Italy	7	7	7	7	7	7	7
Argentina	8	9	11	9	9	11	10
South Africa	9	8	8	8	8	8	9
Brazil	10	10	9	10	12	10	8
Mexico	11	11	10	11	14	9	14
China	12	13	14	13	10	13	12
South Korea	13	12	12	12	11	12	11
Russia	14	14	16	15	13	15	15
Japan	15	15	13	14	15	14	13
Indonesia	16	16	15	16	16	16	16
Turkiye	17	17	17	17	17	17	17
Saudi Arabia	18	18	18	18	18	18	18
India	19	19	19	19	19	19	19

Rank agreement with the base weights

Scheme table
Scheme	Spearman correlation with the base ranking
Base (0.25, 0.20, 0.20, 0.15, 0.20)	1.000
Equal (0.20 each)	0.996
Entropy weights (data-driven)	0.975
First principal component	0.995
Labour-heavy	0.979
Institution-heavy	0.984
Drop D5 (no statistical voice)	0.975

Rank and score across ten specifications

Economy table
Economy	Rank range across 10 specifications	GEVI range
United Kingdom	1 to 2	86.4 to 94.5
France	1 to 3	86.4 to 95.2
Australia	1 to 3	84.8 to 92.8
Canada	4 to 4	82.7 to 91.5
Germany	5 to 5	81.2 to 89.2
United States	6 to 6	79.4 to 88.2
Italy	7 to 7	77.9 to 84.5
Argentina	8 to 8	75.8 to 82.9
South Africa	9 to 9	75.3 to 82.3
Brazil	10 to 10	72.0 to 78.5
Mexico	11 to 13	70.6 to 76.4
China	11 to 13	70.7 to 77.2
South Korea	11 to 14	68.0 to 76.4
Russia	13 to 15	66.5 to 72.6
Japan	14 to 15	65.3 to 70.6
Indonesia	16 to 16	62.7 to 67.1
Turkiye	17 to 17	56.7 to 60.4
Saudi Arabia	18 to 18	50.0 to 53.5
India	19 to 19	46.6 to 48.8

Four clusters from k means

Members table
Members	Centroid D1 to D5	Mean GEVI
United Kingdom, France, Australia, Canada, Germany, United States	0.95 0.92 0.81 0.86 0.84	87.6
South Africa, Mexico	0.74 0.91 0.54 0.77 0.95	76.4
Italy, Argentina, Brazil, China, South Korea, Russia, Japan, Indonesia	0.81 0.86 0.75 0.51 0.71	72.8
Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, India	0.51 0.76 0.44 0.35 0.64	52.5

The strongest correlations across the group are I4 and I6 (+0.98); I8 and I9 (+0.84); I2 and I9 (+0.81); I1 and I9 (+0.81); I1 and I2 (+0.80); I11 and I12 (+0.78). Legal, supportive and enforcement scores move together, which is why D3 and D4 tend to be low or high together.

Scenarios across the group

Table 7. Gain in GEVI points by scenario (S1 data, S2 institutions, S3 legal, S4 labour, S5 politics, S6 enterprise, S7 all)

Economy table
Economy	S1	S2	S3	S4	S5	S6	S7
United Kingdom	+0.0	+0.0	+1.4	+0.5	+0.0	+0.0	+1.9
France	+0.0	+0.0	+1.1	+0.5	+0.0	+0.0	+1.6
Australia	+0.0	+0.0	+1.3	+0.4	+0.0	+0.0	+1.7
Canada	+0.0	+0.0	+1.4	+0.5	+0.0	+0.1	+2.0
Germany	+0.0	+0.0	+1.4	+0.8	+0.0	+2.0	+4.3
United States	+0.0	+0.0	+1.5	+0.8	+0.0	+1.0	+3.3
Italy	+0.0	+0.0	+1.0	+1.7	+0.0	+1.6	+4.4
Argentina	+0.0	+0.0	+1.2	+2.4	+0.0	+0.1	+3.8
South Africa	+0.0	+0.0	+1.9	+1.3	+0.0	+4.7	+7.7
Brazil	+0.0	+0.0	+1.2	+4.0	+0.0	+0.0	+5.3
Mexico	+0.0	+0.0	+1.7	+5.6	+0.0	+3.7	+11.0
China	+0.0	+1.6	+1.3	+1.4	+0.0	+0.0	+4.4
South Korea	+0.0	+0.0	+0.7	+0.8	+0.0	+2.2	+3.7
Russia	+0.0	+1.5	+1.3	+1.8	+0.0	+0.5	+5.2
Japan	+0.0	+1.0	+1.2	+1.6	+0.1	+2.7	+6.8
Indonesia	+0.0	+0.6	+1.2	+3.9	+0.0	+1.6	+7.4
Turkiye	+0.0	+2.1	+1.3	+5.3	+0.0	+4.3	+13.7
Saudi Arabia	+0.0	+2.8	+1.7	+6.6	+0.0	+4.8	+16.9
India	+0.0	+1.8	+1.6	+6.1	+0.2	+7.6	+18.3

Gains are largest for the economies with the widest gaps and smallest for the leaders, where the capped indicators and the concavity of the geometric mean leave little room. For the lower half of the ranking the largest single lever is labour access (S4) in 6 economies, enterprise (S6) in 3 economies, institutions (S2) in 1 economies.

Recommendations for the group

Recommendation table
Recommendation	Owner	Indicators	Evidence
Add a sex field to wage-tax, business and taxpayer registration records and publish an annual gender tax profile	Revenue authorities	I4, I5, I6, I7 and a proposed fiscal indicator	No sex-disaggregated taxpayer statistic was used for any G20 member
Adopt a common minimum table of sex-disaggregated economic statistics with a shared definition of senior management and firm ownership	G20 statistics offices and ILO/World Bank	I5, I7, I13	Definitions differ: senior management is missing for four members and firm ownership is 2009 to 2024 in the others
Cost and fund the missing supporting institutions	Treasuries, gender ministries	I10, D4	D4 is the weakest dimension in the majority of the group
Publish enforcement data (complaints, prosecutions, remedies)	Justice ministries, labour inspectorates	I9	Enforcement perceptions trail legal scores in all 18 economies with an enforcement score
Re-run the index yearly and report the interval	A G20 working group	All	A change inside the 90% interval is noise

Limitations and next steps

Transcription of inputs must be verified against the World Bank pages.

The index measures visibility, not welfare; it should be read alongside labour-market and pay data.

The European Union and the African Union are not scored.

A joint 34-economy run (PITAA and G20) would put both on one set of medians; it has not been done.

Sources

Inputs are from the World Bank Gender Data Landscapes (April 2026 edition, including Women, Business and the Law 2026) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union ranking of 1 August 2026. Inputs were transcribed by hand from the 19 country briefs and should be checked against the source pages before publication.