Ireland has been ranked the fifth out of 145 countries in the World Economic Forum's (WEF) measure of progress in closing the gender gap.

The country was the highest placed non-Nordic country, trailing behind Iceland in first place, Norway, Finland and Sweden.

Germany was 11th, Britain was ranked 18th and the United States was 28th.

Globally the report found that women are now being paid at the same level that men were in 2006.

While Ireland scores high in education and health equality - it lags behind on political representation and scores less well on economic equality.

Ireland's scores graphed by the WEF

The report notes that there is still along way to go before women and men reach total equality - the WEF says that this will take another 118 years.

The Philippines, Fiji and Columbia are the only countries where women hold more leadership roles than men.

Turkey is the lowest ranked European country in 130th place.

Yeman props up the table - ranked 145th, behind Pakistan, Syria, Chad and Iran.