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Women in national parliaments

What share of seats in the national parliament do women hold, in each country?

188 of 188 shown in the list

% of seats held by women

  1. Rwanda63.8% 2025
  2. Cuba55.7% 2025
  3. Nicaragua54.9% 2025
  4. Bolivia50.8% 2025
  5. Mexico50.2% 2025
  6. Andorra50.0% 2025
  7. United Arab Emirates50.0% 2025
  8. Costa Rica49.1% 2025
  9. Australia46.0% 2025
  10. Iceland46.0% 2025
  11. Monaco45.8% 2025
  12. Finland45.5% 2025
  13. New Zealand45.5% 2025
  14. Ecuador45.0% 2025
  15. Sweden45.0% 2025
  16. South Africa44.9% 2025
  17. Cape Verde44.4% 2025
  18. Spain44.3% 2025
  19. Denmark43.6% 2025
  20. Netherlands43.3% 2025
  21. Namibia42.3% 2025
  22. Ethiopia41.9% 2025
  23. Peru41.5% 2025
  24. Belgium41.3% 2025
  25. Argentina41.2% 2025

Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union, Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments (%), via the World Bank. Data for 2023 to 2025. What it counts, how to cite it and the data

At a glance

  • 188 countries or territories have a figure.
  • The highest is Rwanda at 63.8% (2025) and the lowest is Oman at 0.0% (2025).
  • The middle value (the median) is 25.9%.

What it counts

The percentage of seats in a single or lower chamber of the national parliament held by women, as reported by the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

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

The figure covers one chamber and one moment, and it can change at the next election. Some countries have quotas or reserved seats. It says nothing about the power of the parliament or of the women in it.

Source

Inter-Parliamentary Union: Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments (%), 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). Women in national parliaments [Chart]. Law in Charts. https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/women-in-parliament. Data: Inter-Parliamentary Union, Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments (%), via the World Bank, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SG.GEN.PARL.ZS (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-in-parliament). Data: Inter-Parliamentary Union, via World Bank, World Development Indicators.

BibTeX

@misc{womeninparliament2026,
  author = {{TheLawToKnow}},
  title = {Women in national parliaments},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Law in Charts},
  url = {https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/women-in-parliament},
  note = {Data: Inter-Parliamentary Union, Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments (%), via the World Bank, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SG.GEN.PARL.ZS. Retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25.}
}

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