Quantcast
What Countries have Most Number of Women Parliamentarians?


Answers » Government » What Countries have Most Number of Women Parliamentarians?

What Countries have Most Number of Women Parliamentarians?

4.8/5 - (6 votes)
4.8/5 - (6 votes)
World Map Highlighting Countries with the Most Number of Women Parliamentarians
World map depicting countries and the percentage of seats held by women in National Parliaments as per August 2020

Women representation in parliaments, government jobs, and in the private sector has been steadily increasing over the years. According to World Bank data, in the year 2019, the proportion of seats being held by women in national parliaments at the world level stood at around 24.637 percent. This is a major step forward as compared to 1990, when the proportion of seats being held by women at the world level was just 13 percent.

East African nation Rwanda had the highest proportion of women in the world in the national parliament. According to a website (https://data.ipu.org/women), 61.3 percent of seats in parliament are occupied by women in Rwanda. But the heavy presence of women in Rwanda’s national parliament could be attributed to the new constitution, which was enacted in 2003. As per the new constitution, 30 percent of the seats must be reserved for women.

Cuba occupies the second spot in terms of women’s presence in the parliament, holding an impressive 53.2 percent of the seats in the national parliament. Following Cuba, South American nation Bolivia is in the third spot, where women held 53.1 percent of the seats in the national parliament.

The Middle East nation, the United Arab Emirates, has done exceedingly well in the occupation of seats by women in parliament. The Arab nation is in fourth place, where women held 50 percent of seats in the country’s parliament. Mexico occupies the fifth spot where women parliamentarians occupy 48.2 percent seats.

The Central American nation Nicaragua is not behind in the presence of women in the nation’s parliament. It is in the sixth place where 47.3 percent of women are parliamentarians. The Nordic nation Sweden is in the seventh rank, where 47 percent of representatives are women in the country’s parliament.


The Caribbean nation Grenada occupies the eighth spot where women held 46.7 percent seats in parliament. South Africa is in the ninth place where women had 46.6 percent seats in parliament.

Andorra, a small nation in Europe, occupies the 10th position where women occupy 46.4 percent of parliament seats.

The overall representation of women in parliament in the South Asian region stood low. In India, women held just 14.4 percent of the national parliament seats, while Pakistan did much better at 20.2 percent. The figures in Nepal and Bangladesh were also decent at 32.7 and 20.9 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, in Sri Lanka and Maldives, the percentages stood at a dismal 5.3, 4.6 percent, respectively.

The United States surprisingly had a low level of representation, with just 23.6 percent of the seats in the national parliament being held by women. Meanwhile, its northern neighbour Canada was slightly ahead at 29 percent. Australia and New Zealand posted figures of 30.5 percent and 40.8 percent, respectively.

On the other side of the table countries like Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu where the female representation was 0 percent.

Below is a table showing countries with the percentage of women in the National Parliaments:

S.No. Countries Percentage of Women in National Parliament
1 Rwanda 61.30
2 Cuba 53.20
3 Bolivia 53.10
4 The United Arab Emirates 50.00
5 Mexico 48.20
6 Nicaragua 47.30
7 Sweden 47.00
8 Grenada 46.70
9 South Africa 46.50
10 Andorra 46.40
11 Finland 46.00
12 Costa Rica 45.60
13 Spain 44.00
14 Namibia 43.30
15 Senegal 43.00
16 Mozambique 42.40
17 Switzerland 41.50
18 Norway 41.40
19 Argentina 40.90
20 New Zealand 40.80
21 Belgium 40.70
22 Belarus 40.00
23 Portugal 40.00
24 Denmark 39.70
25 France 39.50
26 Ecuador 39.40
27 Austria 39.30
28 Ethiopia 38.80
29 Serbia 38.80
30 Timor-Leste 38.50
31 Burundi 38.20
32 Iceland 38.10
33 Tanzania 36.90
34 Macedonia 35.80
35 Italy 35.70
36 Guyana 35.40
37 Uganda 34.90
38 Dominica 34.40
39 Cameroon 33.90
40 United Kingdom 33.90
41 El Salvador 33.30
42 Monaco 33.30
43 Netherlands 33.30
44 San Marino 33.30
45 Nepal 32.70
46 Uzbekistan 32.00
47 Zimbabwe 31.90
48 Germany 31.20
49 Trinidad and Tobago 31.00
50 Australia 30.50
51 Angola 30.00
52 Latvia 30.00
53 Luxembourg 30.00
54 Croatia 29.80
55 Montenegro 29.60
56 Albania 29.50
57 Singapore 29.50
58 Suriname 29.40
59 Canada 29.00
60 Estonia 28.70
61 Poland 28.70
62 South Sudan 28.50
63 Philippines 28.00
64 Dominican Republic 27.90
65 Mali 27.90
66 Slovenia 27.80
67 Israel 27.50
68 Laos 27.50
69 Kazakhstan 27.10
70 Afghanistan 27.00
71 Bulgaria 26.70
72 Vietnam 26.70
73 Iraq 26.40
74 Djibouti 26.20
75 Peru 26.20
76 Algeria 25.80
77 Cape Verde 25.00
78 Turkmenistan 25.00
79 China 24.90
80 Tunisia 24.90
81 Moldova 24.80
82 Somalia 24.40
83 Lithuania 24.10
84 Tajikistan 23.80
85 Armenia 23.50
86 United States of America 23.40
87 Lesotho 23.30
88 Malawi 22.90
89 Chile 22.60
90 Czech Republic 22.50
91 Ireland 22.50
92 Panama 22.50
93 Venezuela 22.20
94 Romania 21.90
95 Kenya 21.80
96 Greece 21.70
97 Bosnia and Herzegovina 21.40
98 Seychelles 21.20
99 Uruguay 21.20
100 Honduras 21.10
101 Equatorial Guinea 21.00
102 Bangladesh 20.90
103 Ukraine 20.80
104 Morocco 20.50
105 Indonesia 20.40
106 Mauritania 20.30
107 Pakistan 20.20
108 Barbados 20.00
109 Cambodia 20.00
110 Mauritius 20.00
111 Saint Kitts and Nevis 20.00
112 Slovakia 20.00
113 Saudi Arabia 19.90
114 Cyprus 19.60
115 Fiji 19.60
116 Guatemala 19.40
117 Kyrgyzstan 19.20
118 Korea, South 19.00
119 Togo 18.70
120 Colombia 18.30
121 Korea, North 17.60
122 Jamaica 17.50
123 Azerbaijan 17.40
124 Mongolia 17.30
125 Turkey 17.30
126 Niger 17.00
127 Zambia 16.80
128 Comoros 16.70
129 Guinea 16.70
130 Saint Lucia 16.70
131 Paraguay 16.30
132 Libya 16.00
133 Madagascar 15.90
134 Russia 15.80
135 Thailand 15.80
136 Chad 15.40
137 Jordan 15.40
138 Egypt 15.10
139 Bahrain 15.00
140 Bhutan 14.90
141 Gabon 14.80
142 Brazil 14.60
143 Sao Tome and Principe 14.60
144 India 14.40
145 Malaysia 14.40
146 Georgia 14.10
147 Guinea-Bissau 13.70
148 Burkina Faso 13.40
149 Malta 13.40
150 Ghana 13.10
151 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 13.00
152 Bahamas 12.80
153 Democratic Republic of the Congo 12.80
154 Palau 12.50
155 Liberia 12.30
156 Sierra Leone 12.30
157 Hungary 12.10
158 Liechtenstein 12.00
159 Cote D’Ivoire 11.40
160 Republic of the Congo 11.30
161 Syria 11.20
162 Antigua 11.10
163 Myanmar 11.10
164 Botswana 10.80
165 Nauru 10.50
166 Samoa 10.00
167 Japan 9.90
168 Qatar 9.80
169 Swaziland 9.60
170 Belize 9.40
171 Brunei 9.10
172 Kiribati 8.90
173 Central African Republic 8.60
174 Gambia, The 8.60
175 Tonga 7.40
176 Benin 7.20
177 Kuwait 6.40
178 Tuvalu 6.30
179 Marshall Islands 6.10
180 Solomon Islands 6.10
181 Iran 5.80
182 Sri Lanka 5.30
183 Lebanon 4.70
184 Maldives 4.60
185 Nigeria 3.60
186 Oman 2.30
187 Yemen 0.30
188 Federated States of Micronesia 0.00
189 Papua New Guinea 0.00
190 Vanuatu 0.00
191 Akrotiri Sovereign Base Area NA
192 American Samoa NA
193 Anguilla NA
194 Antarctica NA
195 Aruba NA
196 Ashmore and Cartier Islands NA
197 Azores NA
198 Barbuda NA
199 Bermuda NA
200 Bouvet Island NA
201 British Indian Ocean Territory NA
202 British Virgin Islands NA
203 Cayman Islands NA
204 Clipperton I. NA
205 Cook Islands NA
206 Coral Sea Islands NA
207 Curaþao NA
208 Dhekelia Soverign Base Area NA
209 Falkland Islands NA
210 French Polynesia NA
211 French Southern and Antarctic Lands NA
212 Gibraltar NA
213 Greenland NA
214 Guam NA
215 Guernsey NA
216 Heard Island and McDonald Islands NA
217 Heard Island and McDonald Islands NA
218 Indian Ocean Territories NA
219 Isle of Man NA
220 Jersey NA
221 Kosovo NA
222 Madeira NA
223 Montserrat NA
224 New Caledonia NA
225 Norfolk Island NA
226 Northern Mariana Islands NA
227 Palestine NA
228 Pitcairn Islands NA
229 Puerto Rico NA
230 Saint Helena NA
231 Saint Martin NA
232 Saint Pierre and Miquelon NA
233 Sint Maarten NA
234 South Georgia and the Islands NA
235 Special Municipalities (Neth.) NA
236 St. Barthelemy NA
237 Taiwan NA
238 Tokelau NA
239 Turks and Caicos Islands NA
240 United States Virgin Islands NA
241 US Minor Outlying Islands NA
242 US Naval Base Guantanamo Bay NA
243 Vatican (Holy Sea) NA
244 Wallis and Futuna NA
245 Western Sahara NA
246 Eritrea NA
247 Haiti NA
248 Sudan NA

Related Links:

 Related Map:
World Map
World Map

Recent Posts