The EIGI produces an annual Gender Equality Index ranking the countries of the EU. The 2023 index is based mostly on data from 2021 and 2022 and gives the EU and its Member States a score from 1 to 100. A score of 100 would mean that a country had reached full equality between women and men.
Latvia scores 61.5, putting it ahead of Estonia (60.2) but behind Lithuania (64.1). Latvia ranks 19th in the EU on the Gender Equality Index. Its score is 8.7 points below the score for the EU as a whole.
Since 2010, Latvia’s score has increased by 6.3 points, mainly due to improvements in the domains of power (+ 14.3 points) and money (+ 9.2 points). However, since 2020, "progress in Latvia has stalled", according to the EIGE.
"This can be attributed to simultaneous increases in the domains of knowledge (+ 2.7 points) and work (+ 2.2 points), and decreases in the domains of time (– 3.2 points) and power (– 1.8 points). As a result, Latvia’s ranking in the Index has fallen by three places since 2020, and currently stands at 19th place," the EIGI said.
Latvia’s highest ranking (14th among all Member States) is in the domain of work, in which it scores 76.4 points. On the other hand Latvia’s greatest room for improvement is in the sub-domain of economic situation, in which the country ranks last in the EU.
You can examine the data for Latvia in more detail here: https://eige.europa.eu/gender-equality-index/2023/LV
The EIGE describes itself as "an independent centre and the primary source for information on gender equality in the European Union. We contribute to making the European Union become a Union of Equality, where women and men, girls and boys in all their diversity are free to pursue their chosen path in life, have equal opportunities to thrive, and can equally participate in and lead our societies."
Ten years ago, EIGE introduced the Gender Equality Index as a marker for the status quo of gender equality in the EU. In this year’s edition there is the biggest annual jump in the overall score in the history of the Index ever: the EU is at 70.2 points out of 100.
Carlien Scheele, EIGE's Director said:
"Over the years, the EU has made progress towards gender equality. But we are also aware that it is not enough, and gains are fragile. Today, only Sweden with a score above 80 points in the Index is inching closer to gender equality. Sweden only represents 2% of the EU population."
You can see the presentation of the 2023 data in the video below.
