Nicaragua's success lies in improvements it has made in education and health. Continued progress in those areas has allowed Nicaragua, a nation ofsix million, to remain in the top 10 for three years in a row.
More women than men enroll in school across all grades in Nicaragua, from elementary school through college. And while the country’s 78 percent literacy rate ranks 56th in the world, the same proportion of Nicaraguan men and women can read.
Nicaragua has been even more successful in closing the gender gaps in birth rates and life expectancy, gaps which the WEF declared non-existent in the country. Boys and girls are born at virtually the same rate, while life expectancy for women (66 years old) is five years longer than it is for men.
