Global coverage of the data needed to monitor gender equality under Sustainable Development Goal 5 reached 61% in 2026, up from 30% in 2019, according to UN Women’s final Women Count Phase II annual report.

That still leaves 39% of the required data unavailable under the report’s measure, limiting how reliably governments and international organizations can track progress for women and girls.

The eight countries with dedicated Women Count projects averaged 84% data availability. That was 23 percentage points above the global average.

Those countries were Bangladesh, Cameroon, Colombia, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda.

For the first time, 63% of the data needed to measure sexual violence under SDG indicator 5.2.2 were available. The equivalent figure was 0% in 2019, according to the report.

Better data do not mean the targets have been met

The increase in statistical coverage has not been matched by equivalent progress toward the gender equality targets themselves.

None of the SDG 5 indicators has been fully achieved, the report says. One is close to its target, 10 remain at a moderate distance, three are far or very far from their targets, and four still lack enough data for a full assessment.

Data availability and policy progress are different measures. Better coverage makes it easier to identify gaps, compare countries and hold institutions accountable, but it does not by itself reduce inequality.

Phase II supported data work in 91 countries

Women Count Phase II ran from 2022 through 2025, supporting 91 countries through national, regional and global projects.

The programme reports that it supported 188 data-production initiatives, including 17 surveys on violence against women, 20 time-use surveys and eight gender-and-environment surveys.

Time-use surveys can reveal how unpaid care and domestic work are divided within households. Gender-and-environment surveys examine differences in exposure to climate risks, disasters and natural-resource use.

The programme also trained 18,734 data producers and users to collect, analyze and apply gender statistics.

UN Women says gender data informed at least 54 policies or programmes in 23 countries, covering areas such as women’s economic empowerment, violence prevention, humanitarian responses and disaster planning.

Those figures describe cases in which data contributed to policymaking. The report does not establish that Women Count was solely responsible for the resulting policy changes.

Data systems increasingly influenced national planning

The programme supported 64 coordination mechanisms across 17 countries and four regions, bringing together statistical agencies, government ministries and other data users.

Gender statistics were also integrated into 63 national plans and strategies across 22 countries and two regions.

The report highlights national time-use surveys, administrative records, geospatial information and citizen-generated data as ways to fill gaps that conventional household surveys may miss.

UN Women’s Data Hub attracted more than 1 million annual users from over 230 countries and territories. Women Count also produced more than 300 knowledge products during Phase II.

Why it matters

Governments need disaggregated data to determine which groups are being reached by employment, social-protection, health, education and climate programmes.

Without those figures, national averages can conceal differences linked to income, location, disability, migration status and other factors.

The issue also extends beyond SDG 5. Earlier StatsJournalist coverage of overlapping water, poverty and gender inequality showed how gender indicators can change the assessment of broader development risks.

More complete data can help identify those overlaps, but only when statistics are timely, detailed enough and used in actual budget and policy decisions.

The availability measure has an important caveat

UN Women treated a data point as available once it had appeared in any UN Sustainable Development Goal data archive since 2019.

That means the 61% figure measures whether relevant data have appeared, not whether every country produces each statistic regularly or whether every observation is current.

The calculation currently covers SDG 5 while UN Women reviews its broader methodology for measuring the availability of gender-related SDG data.

The difference between the 84% average in programme countries and the 61% global figure should also not be interpreted as a causal estimate of Women Count’s impact. Countries receiving dedicated support may differ from other countries in institutional capacity, financing and government commitment.

Financing remains fragile

Gender-data projects accounted for only 13% of total international financing for statistics in 2023, according to figures cited in the report.

Funding fell from $194 million in 2021 to $165 million in 2022 and $154 million in 2023.

UN Women plans to continue the programme through Phase III from 2026 to 2029, with greater emphasis on turning data into policy impact, strengthening national financing and expanding the use of administrative, geospatial and citizen-generated information.

The next test will be whether higher data availability produces more regular and detailed statistics—and whether governments consistently use those statistics when allocating money and designing services.