Law in Charts · Women, work and the law
Employment rate of women aged 20 to 64
What share of women aged 20 to 64 are in employment, in each European country?
% of women aged 20 to 64 in employment
- Iceland83.6% 2025
- Estonia81.4% 2025
- Lithuania80.3% 2025
- Sweden79.8% 2025
- Netherlands79.6% 2025
- Switzerland79.2% 2025
- Germany77.7% 2025
- Czechia77.5% 2025
- Latvia77.3% 2025
- Hungary77.0% 2025
- Norway77.0% 2025
- Portugal77.0% 2025
- Denmark76.7% 2025
- Malta76.7% 2025
- Cyprus76.3% 2025
- Finland75.7% 2025
- Ireland75.7% 2025
- Slovenia75.7% 2025
- Austria74.2% 2025
- Slovakia73.7% 2025
- Bulgaria73.2% 2025
- Poland73.2% 2025
- France72.6% 2025
- Croatia71.8% 2025
- Luxembourg70.5% 2025
Source: Eurostat, Employment and labour force by sex and age (lfsi_emp_a). Data for 2025. What it counts, how to cite it and the data
At a glance
- 34 countries or territories have a figure.
- The highest is Iceland at 83.6% (2025) and the lowest is Türkiye at 39.1% (2025).
- The middle value (the median) is 75.7%.
What it counts
Women aged 20 to 64 in employment as a share of all women of that age, from the EU labour force survey, in the latest year each country reports (since 2022).
What it leaves out, and how far to trust a comparison
An hour of paid work counts as employment, so the rate does not show full-time work, pay or security, nor unpaid care work. Laws on leave, childcare and equal treatment are only one of many things that shape it.
Source
Eurostat: Employment and labour force by sex and age (lfsi_emp_a). 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). Employment rate of women aged 20 to 64 [Chart]. Law in Charts. https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/women-employment-rate. Data: Eurostat, Employment and labour force by sex and age (lfsi_emp_a), https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/lfsi_emp_a/default/table (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-employment-rate). Data: Eurostat.
BibTeX
@misc{womenemploymentrate2026,
author = {{TheLawToKnow}},
title = {Employment rate of women aged 20 to 64},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Law in Charts},
url = {https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/women-employment-rate},
note = {Data: Eurostat, Employment and labour force by sex and age (lfsi_emp_a), https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/lfsi_emp_a/default/table. Retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25.}
}Embed this chart on your own page
<iframe src="https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/embed/law-in-charts/women-employment-rate" title="Employment rate of women aged 20 to 64, TheLawToKnow Law in Charts" width="100%" height="620" style="border:0" loading="lazy"></iframe>
Learn more
- Course: Labor and Employment Law
More in Women, work and the law
- Women in national parliaments
- Women in national parliaments, since 1997
- Women in ministerial positions
- Women's average hourly pay as a share of men's
- Women's average hourly pay as a share of men's, over time
- Do the laws give women and men the same rights?
- Firms led by a woman
- Women in senior and middle management
- Women in the labour force
- Women in the labour force, over time
General information, not legal advice. All charts.