Arab states continue to perform badly in the World Economic Forum's latest survey of the Global Gender Gap, released last month. The Middle East and North Africa is the worst-performing of six global regions examined in the study. 

As in previous years, four Nordic countries – Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden – top the list.

The best-performing Arab country – the UAE – is ranked at number 103 (out of 136), while Yemen is at the very bottom with Saudi Arabia not far above. Qatar has shown the biggest improvement, moving up from 117 last year to 111.

The survey, first established five years ago, measures national gender disparities based on a range of criteria: economic, political, educational and health-related. It looks only at the gap between male and female, so the results should not be affected by a country's general level of resources or economic development.

The rankings of the 15 Arab countries included in the survey are as follows:

United Arab Emirates 103
Kuwait 105 
Tunisia 108 
Bahrain 110 
Qatar 111 
Mauritania 114 
Jordan 117 
Lebanon 118 
Algeria 121 
Egypt 123 
Syria 124 
Oman 127
Morocco 129 
Saudi Arabia 131
Yemen 136