Women account for 41.7% of full-time workers and 67.1% of part-time workers in Ireland, new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has found.
According to CSO data, among those in employment as of Q4 2025, 29% of women worked part-time, compared with 13% of men. Unemployment rates were similar, with 4.4 percent for men and 4.3 percent for women.
As of November 2025, women made up 27% of government ministers and 43% of Irish members of the European Parliament. The figures indicated differences in participation at national and European levels.
Elsewhere, more than half (52%) of Irish women aged 15 to 64 held a third level qualification as of the second quarter of 2024, compared with 44% of men.
In terms of health data, life expectancy rankings in 2023 placed Ireland eighth for men and twelfth for women across Europe. Data on family life showed that the average age of first-time mothers in Ireland was 31.6 years, compared with a European Union average of 29.8 years.
Sport and media
The CSO’s data also included details on sport and media viewership, noting that in 2025, average viewership per match for the men’s Six Nations rugby competition was more than eight times that of the women’s matches.
In contrast, attendance at the women’s basketball cup finals exceeded that of the men’s finals, with higher audience numbers recorded for the women’s event.
The CSO’s Women and Men in Ireland Hub was first launched in March 2024, to provide data on men and women in Ireland around six main themes: Gender Equality; Work; Education; Health; Safety and Security; and Transport.
Life experiences
Commenting on the release, statistician Laura Delaney noted that the Hub reflects differences in work patterns, career paths, and experiences. “The Hub also paints a picture of the different life experiences of men and women, across themes such as education, health, sport, and safety,” she said.
“This is a single data resource on our website which gathers and automatically updates statistics on women and men as they are published by the CSO and other public sector organisations. The Hub is designed to increase the frequency of updates and simplify the process of finding and accessing data on women and men in Ireland.” Read more here.
