Women's Share in EU Science Jobs Hits 40.5% in 2024

By: GWL Team | Thursday, 12 February 2026

In 2024, the number of women working in science and engineering in the EU reached 7.9 million (40.5% of total workforce).
They were most represented in the services sector; their share in manufacturing was the lowest (22.4%).
Latvia is at the top of the list; Finland, Hungary, and Luxembourg have the smallest shares.

The long-standing goal of the breaking down of gender stereotype in the field of work, has been a step closer to the reality as per the latest figures from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. Numbers confirm that more and more women are joining the science and engineering workforce in the EU.

The statistics indicate that there has been a consistent increase throughout the years, going up from 3.4 million women employed in science and engineering in 2008 to 5.2 million in 2014, and getting to 7.9 million in 2024.

Eurostat estimates for 2024 suggest that women made up 40.5 per cent of the total science and engineering workforce in the European Union. Women's shares were the highest in knowledge-intensive services (45.1 per cent) and services (45.0 per cent). In the manufacturing sector, where men still dominate, women accounted for only 22.4 per cent of scientists and engineers.

Different Member States vary significantly. The largest percentages of women scientists and engineers were in Latvia (50.9 per cent), Denmark (48.8 per cent), and Estonia (47.9 per cent). Latvia is the only Member State where women in science and engineering significantly outnumber men, and their percentage stands at 50.9 per cent, 10.4 percentage points above the EU average.

On the contrary, the smallest proportion was in Finland (30.7 per cent) with Hungary (31.7 per cent) and Luxembourg (32.4 per cent) as the next lowest. Italy is still below the EU average, by about 38 percentage points.

At the level of regions, female scientists and engineers are almost evenly split across 10 EU regions, including four in Spain, two in Portugal, two in Poland, one in Bulgaria, and one in Sweden. In Italy, Central Italy shows the largest share at 38.0 per cent, followed by the islands, North-West, North-East, and Southern Italy.