Which European country boasts the largest gender gap when it comes to employment?

The gender employment gap in the European Union stood at 10% in 2024, with an employment rate of 80.8% for men and 70.8% for women aged between 20 and 64 years, new data from Eurostat has found.

The gender employment gap narrowed by 0.2 percentage points last year, compared to 2023, and is 1.1 percentage points lower than in 2014, the data showed.

Largest gender gap

Italy boasts the largest gender gap in terms of employment in the EU, with a gap of 19.4% as of last year, followed by Greece (18.8%) and Romania (18.1%), with Malta (13.4%) and Czechia (12.6%) also reporting a gender gap above the EU average.

The smallest gender gap among EU member states was reported in Finland (0.7%), followed by the Baltic states, with Lithuania on 1.4%, Estonia on 1.7% and Latvia on 3.3%. See the full table below for data from other EU countries.

On a European level, the gender employment gap was particularly pronounced among foreign-born EU citizens, where it stood at 18.1%, Eurostat noted. The employment rate for foreign-born men stood at 83.1% last year, compared to 65% for women. Read more here.

Gender Employment Gap in EU Member States (2024)