Gender employment gap still persists in 2022

In 2022, the EU’s gender employment gap was 10.7 percentage points (pp), 0.2 pp lower than in 2021.

The gender employment gap is defined as the difference between the employment rates of men and women aged 20-64.

A variety of reasons cause gender disparities in employment, such as unpaid care responsibilities of women, hiring discrimination, and scarcity of women in leadership. Additionally, factors like inadequate childcare, tax disincentives, and occupational segregation contribute to enduring gender employment gaps.

There were only two EU regions, among those classified at level 2 of the nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS 2), that registered a higher employment rate among women in 2022: the Capital Region of Lithuania (Sostinės regionas) and South Finland (Etelä-Suomi) in Finland. In the region of North and East Finland (Pohjois- ja Itä-Suomi) there was no difference in employment rates between men and women. In all the other EU regions, the gender gap persisted with higher rates of employment for men.

In 2019, the EU has set a goal to halve the gender gap by 2030. One in five EU regions has already met the target set at 5.8 pp. These regions are shown using three different golden tones in the map below. They were concentrated in France (14 regions), Germany (7 regions), Finland (all 5 regions), Sweden and Portugal (both 4 regions), Lithuania (both regions), as well as Latvia and Estonia (1 region countries). 

Source dataset: lfst_r_lfe2emprtn

There were 20 NUTS 2 regions, where the gender employment gap was at least 20.0 pp in 2022. Half of these were in Greece, while the remainder were concentrated in Italy (7 regions) and Romania (3 regions). 

The highest gender employment gaps were recorded in the region of Central Greece (Sterea Elláda, 31.4 pp) and the southern Italian region of Puglia (30.7 pp).

You can observe the gender employment gap in your region by selecting it in our interactive visualisation.

Would you like to know more about the regional employment in EU?

You can read more about regional employment in the dedicated section of the Regions in Europe - 2023 interactive edition and in the Eurostat regional yearbook - 2023 edition, also available as a set of Statistics Explained articles. The corresponding maps in the Statistical Atlas provide a full-screen interactive map.