South Korea’s gender equality level worsened this year, a report said Tuesday.

According to the Global Gender Gap report by the World Economic Forum, Korea ranked 117th among 142 countries in terms of gender equality, six steps down from last year and far behind other emerging and developed countries.

The report tracks gender equality situations across the world, rating countries based on their economy, education, health and politics.

Much of Korea’s disparity in gender equality during the cited period was related to a smaller number of women entering politics and the workforce. Korea had a low female-to-male ratio among parliament and ministerial positions, scoring 0.19 and 0.13 respectively, with a score close to 1 deemed gender-balanced.

In the report, Iceland topped the list, followed by Finland, Norway and Sweden. In Asia, the Philippines achieved the region’s highest rank at ninth, while Japan climbed one slot to 104th and China fell 18 steps to 87th.

By Kim Da-sol, Intern reporter (dasolkim@heraldcorp.com)