Ireland moves up to 6th place in EU Gender Equality rankings

Ireland has seen significant improvement in its ranking within the EU on gender equality.

Ireland now ranks 6th in the EU in the 2025 Gender Equality Index published by the European Institute for Gender Equality. This is three places ahead of its ranking of 9th in the 2024 Gender Equality Index.

 “It is good to see Ireland’s progress on gender equality in recent years reflected in our higher ranking in the EU Gender Equality Index. It shows that Ireland is becoming a leader on equality for women and girls," said Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, Norma Foley.

"While we can rightly celebrate our successes, we must also acknowledge the work that still needs to be done. We will continue to work through our new National Strategy for Women and Girls to ensure that women can fully participate and lead in all areas of life.”

The 2025 Gender Equality Index report notes that Malta, Ireland and Lithuania have made most headway in gender equality in the EU since 2020.link

The Gender Equality Index is a key tool in monitoring progress towards gender equality in the EU. Published annually by EIGE, the Gender Equality Index measures gaps between women and men in six key areas – work, money, knowledge, time, power and health. The Index also looks at two cross-cutting domains that affect all others – violence against women and intersecting inequalities.

Ireland now scores 69.0 points out of 100 in the 2025 Gender Equality Index. With an average score of 63.4 across the EU, Ireland excels in many measures of success. Ireland achieved its highest rank in the areas of knowledge and health and now ranks 1st in the EU for both of these.

Further achievements include:

• Increased employment rates for both genders.
• Horizontal and vertical segregations in labour have decreased.
• Significant increases in the number of third-level graduates. 

The National Strategy for Women and Girls 2025-2030 recently launched by Minister Foley sets out the Government’s commitment to advance gender equality over the next five years. The actions coming out of the Strategy will aim to ensure that women and girls continue to enjoy equality in Ireland and that progress can be reflected in continued strong performance in the Gender Equality Index.

The Gender Equality Index 2025 can be accessed here.