Ireland is the fifth best place to be a woman, a new international survey has found.

The gender gap is narrower there than almost anywhere else according to a new World Economic Forum study.

Ireland ranks fifth after Scandinavian countries Finland, Norway, and Sweden, and also Iceland. Britain is ranked 18th and the U.S. at 22nd.

Ireland ranks highly politically, having had a female head of state 21 out of the last 50 years serving as president.

Irish women earn 75 per cent of what their male counterparts do which is far higher than most countries.

The World Economic Forum said it tracked countries' progress over time and checked where the greatest improvement between between men and women was.

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