Girls' Education · Southern Africa · 2000–2020 · World Bank WDI

Where are the girls in Southern Africa's classrooms?

Sixteen countries. Two decades. One dataset from the World Bank's World Development Indicators, parsed to surface the enrollment gaps, the parity reversals, and the completion gaps that aggregate numbers tend to bury.

The Gender Parity Index (GPI) measures the ratio of female to male enrollment. A GPI of 1.0 = exact parity. Below 1.0 = boys outnumber girls. Above 1.0 = girls outnumber boys — which, as Lesotho shows, can itself signal a different kind of inequity.

Regional GPI trajectory, 2000–2020

01 — Parity

The SADC regional average for both primary and secondary school gender parity over two decades — a macro view before drilling into individual countries.

Primary school GPI

Female ÷ male gross enrollment · 16-country SADC average

Secondary school GPI

Female ÷ male gross enrollment · 16-country SADC average

Source: World Bank World Development Indicators (WDI), 2021 release. UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

Country-by-country snapshot

02 — Countries

Each card shows the latest available Gender Parity Index for primary and secondary levels, primary completion rate for girls, and share of girls out of school. Click a card to load that country's trends below.

Country trend explorer

03 — Trends

Select a country from the cards above — or click a name below — to view its gender parity and enrollment trajectory over time.

GPI over time

Primary and secondary gender parity index, 2000–2020

Primary completion rate

Female vs. male, % of relevant age group

Data gaps reflect years with no survey data — a data visibility problem common to the region.

Primary completion: girls vs. boys

04 — Completion

Finishing primary school is a different question from enrolling. This chart compares the latest available female and male primary completion rates across all 16 countries.

Completion rate by country (latest available year)

Female (teal) and male (charcoal) primary completion rates — ranked by female rate

Summary findings

05 — Findings

All 16 countries ranked by latest secondary GPI. Status interpreted as: ahead ≥ 1.0, near parity 0.9–1.0, behind < 0.9.

What this data doesn't tell us: enrollment ≠ attendance ≠ learning outcomes. A GPI of 1.0 at primary level is necessary but nowhere near sufficient — it says nothing about whether girls who enroll stay, learn, or translate schooling into economic agency. The next layer of this analysis would pair GPI with out-of-school rates, poverty headcounts, and child marriage prevalence to build a fuller picture.