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Law in Charts · Women, work and the law

Do the laws give women and men the same rights?

How far do a country's laws give women the same legal rights as men to work, to own, to marry and to run a business?

189 of 189 shown in the list

Legal Framework Index, 0 to 100

  1. Spain97.9 2025
  2. Croatia94.4 2025
  3. Slovenia94.4 2025
  4. France92.9 2025
  5. Italy92.9 2025
  6. Ireland92.1 2025
  7. Australia91.9 2025
  8. Greece91.3 2025
  9. Lithuania91.2 2025
  10. Belgium91.1 2025
  11. Portugal91.1 2025
  12. Austria90.9 2025
  13. Romania90.7 2025
  14. New Zealand90.0 2025
  15. Luxembourg89.2 2025
  16. United Kingdom89.0 2025
  17. Kosovo88.8 2025
  18. Bulgaria88.7 2025
  19. Peru88.7 2025
  20. Ecuador88.6 2025
  21. Cyprus88.4 2025
  22. Denmark88.4 2025
  23. Malta88.4 2025
  24. Norway88.1 2025
  25. Canada87.9 2025

Source: World Bank, Women, Business and the Law, WBL: Legal Framework Index (scale 0-100), via the World Bank. Data for 2025. What it counts, how to cite it and the data

At a glance

  • 189 countries or territories have a figure.
  • The highest is Spain at 97.9 (2025) and the lowest is Afghanistan at 5.0 (2025).
  • The middle value (the median) is 70.0.

What it counts

The World Bank's Women, Business and the Law Legal Framework Index: a score from 0 to 100 that rises with the number of laws and regulations in areas such as freedom of movement, work, pay, marriage, parenthood, running a business, property and pensions that give women the same rights as men. It reads the laws as written for a standard case.

What it leaves out, and how far to trust a comparison

The index scores the law on paper, not how it is applied, and it covers a fixed list of topics, so a country can score 100 and still have unequal practice, or score lower and have strong other protections. It does not measure other laws that matter to women's lives and is not a verdict on any country.

Source

World Bank, Women, Business and the Law: WBL: Legal Framework Index (scale 0-100), via the World Bank, compiled in World Bank, World Development Indicators. Source licence: CC BY 4.0. Data retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25.

Cite this chart

Free to use in teaching, articles, reports and slides, with credit. Our compilation is licensed CC BY 4.0; the source publishes the underlying data under its own licence, shown below.

Reference (APA style)

TheLawToKnow. (2026). Do the laws give women and men the same rights? [Chart]. Law in Charts. https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/women-business-law-index. Data: World Bank, Women, Business and the Law, WBL: Legal Framework Index (scale 0-100), via the World Bank, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GD_WBL_OVL_LAW (data retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25).

Short credit for slides and websites

Chart: TheLawToKnow, Law in Charts (https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/women-business-law-index). Data: World Bank, Women, Business and the Law, via World Bank, World Development Indicators.

BibTeX

@misc{womenbusinesslawindex2026,
  author = {{TheLawToKnow}},
  title = {Do the laws give women and men the same rights?},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Law in Charts},
  url = {https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/women-business-law-index},
  note = {Data: World Bank, Women, Business and the Law, WBL: Legal Framework Index (scale 0-100), via the World Bank, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GD_WBL_OVL_LAW. Retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25.}
}

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