Wide gender gaps persist across the Mediterranean region, affecting various aspects of social life: from lifestyles and levels of education to political participation and the progress of women’s emancipation. Differences in socio-economic development and gender equality result in groups of countries that are very far apart, highlighting significant disparities at the regional level.
Tobacco consumption, schooling, parliamentary seats occupied by women , the composite index to measure the effect of laws and regulations on women's economic opportunities, and finally the gender comparison through indexes of development and inequality.
Prevalence of current tobacco use, females (% of female adults)
Prevalence of current tobacco use, males (% of male adults)
Lower secondary completion rate, female (% of relevant age group)
Lower secondary completion rate, male (% of relevant age group)
Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments (%)
Women Business and the Law Index Score (scale 1-100)
Indice di sviluppo di genere
Indice di uguaglianza di genere
area_code
ordgeo
Countries
2025
2025
2022
2022
2024
2023
2023
2023
Portugal
21.8
29.7
102.1
102.2
0.0
100.0
1.0
0.1
A
1
Spain
27.5
28.0
93.2
88.8
0.0
100.0
1.0
0.0
A
2
France
34.0
35.2
100.2
100.1
0.0
100.0
1.0
0.0
A
3
Italy
19.1
25.0
95.8
96.0
0.0
97.5
1.0
0.0
A
4
Slovenia
18.0
21.1
95.2
93.6
0.0
96.9
1.0
0.0
A
5
Croatia
38.9
36.3
102.0
101.3
0.0
93.8
1.0
0.1
A
6
Greece
29.0
32.2
95.4
95.1
0.0
100.0
1.0
0.1
A
7
Malta
23.0
24.8
97.9
99.2
0.0
91.2
1.0
0.1
A
8
Cyprus
24.4
45.6
104.0
105.0
0.0
96.9
1.0
0.2
A
9
Serbia
39.2
38.9
95.9
94.8
0.0
93.8
1.0
0.1
B
10
Kosovo
..
..
..
..
..
91.9
..
..
B
11
Bosnia and Herzegovina
30.5
39.9
91.4
89.5
0.0
85.0
1.0
0.2
B
12
Montenegro
33.1
29.9
99.8
97.9
0.0
85.0
1.0
0.1
B
13
North Macedonia
..
..
91.9
94.2
0.0
85.0
1.0
0.1
B
14
Albania
5.6
35.9
94.9
99.2
0.0
91.2
1.0
0.1
B
15
Turkiye
20.6
39.7
92.4
92.4
0.0
82.5
0.9
0.2
C
16
Syrian Arab Republic
..
..
48.2
41.0
0.0
40.0
0.8
0.5
C
17
Lebanon
25.0
43.3
61.2
51.2
0.0
58.8
1.0
0.4
C
18
Jordan
14.1
58.4
94.8
85.7
0.0
59.4
0.9
0.4
C
19
Israel
12.9
25.5
93.8
93.7
0.0
80.6
1.0
0.1
C
20
West Bank and Gaza
..
..
94.6
91.2
..
26.2
0.9
0.0
C
21
Egypt, Arab Rep.
0.3
51.2
82.7
81.8
0.0
50.6
0.9
0.4
D
22
Libya
..
..
..
..
0.0
50.0
1.0
0.2
D
23
Tunisia
1.4
37.6
92.8
72.8
0.0
64.4
0.9
0.2
D
24
Algeria
0.6
41.6
90.4
59.8
0.0
57.5
0.9
0.4
D
25
Morocco
0.9
23.6
76.1
64.7
0.0
75.6
0.9
0.4
D
26
Prevalence of current tobacco use, females (% of female adults)
KosovoNo data available
North MacedoniaNo data available
Syrian Arab RepublicNo data available
West Bank and GazaNo data available
LibyaNo data available
Prevalence of current tobacco use, males (% of male adults)
KosovoNo data available
North MacedoniaNo data available
Syrian Arab RepublicNo data available
West Bank and GazaNo data available
LibyaNo data available
Lower secondary completion rate, female (% of relevant age group)
KosovoNo data available
Egypt, Arab Rep.Latest available data: 2021
LibyaNo data available
TunisiaLatest available data: 2021
Lower secondary completion rate, male (% of relevant age group)
KosovoNo data available
Egypt, Arab Rep.Latest available data: 2021
LibyaNo data available
TunisiaLatest available data: 2021
Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments (%)
KosovoNo data available
West Bank and GazaNo data available
Indice di sviluppo di genere
PortugalLatest available data: 2022
KosovoNo data available
Indice di uguaglianza di genere
KosovoNo data available
West Bank and GazaLatest available data: 2022
Some highlighted topics
Lifestyles
The state of health of countries is generally influenced by the lifestyle of their respective populations. In particular, tobacco consumption is considered one of the main factors contributing to death from non-communicable diseases among the population; this indicator is also valued in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Among the EU countries in the Mediterranean area, gender gaps in the tobacco consumption indicator are smaller than in countries in other macro-regions. In particular, Cyprus is the European Union country with the largest gap (24.4% for women and 45.6% for men), followed by Portugal (21.8% and 29.7% respectively) and Italy (19.1% and 25.0%, Figure1). However, the highest levels of the indicator are found in Croatia, France and Greece, where they exceed 30% for both sexes. A situation of substantial equivalence in smoking habits also applies to some countries in the Western Balkans: Serbia and Montenegro (where the indicator values are even higher for women). The most polarised situation, on the other hand, occurs in the Middle East (with the exception of Israel and Lebanon) and North Africa, where smoking affects more than four out of ten men in many cases, with the highest values in Jordan (58.4%) and Egypt (51.2%), while tobacco consumption among women is much less widespread, especially in North African countries (with rates not exceeding 2%).
Figure 1 - Tobacco use by gender. 2025 (% of women and men 15 years and over)
...
Schooling
Gender gaps in education vary considerably across macro-regions and countries. A high ratio of the indicator for admission to the final year of lower secondary education (as a percentage of the population of the expected age for entry) also indicates a high level of completion of current primary education (Figure 2). This is a gross measure and can therefore exceed 100% if there are large numbers of pupils who started school early or late and/or who repeated previous years. It reflects how policies on access to and progression through the early grades of primary or lower secondary education affect the final attainment level for that particular level.
Among EU countries, there is a substantial gender balance at levels close to full enrolment; however, in Portugal, Slovenia and Spain, the ratio is more favourable for women (104.4% vs 101.9%, 95.2% vs 93.6% and 93.6% vs 89.8% respectively). In the Western Balkans, Albania lags behind in female enrolment (94.9% vs. 99.2%), while in the Middle East, it should be noted that in all countries except Turkey, the figures are more favourable for women than for men. This advantage for women is also particularly noteworthy in two North African countries: Algeria and Morocco.
Figure 2 – Gross intake ratio to the last grade of lower education by gender. 2022 (%)
...
Political participation and women's empowerment
Political participation reveals a smaller gender gap in most European Union countries. In particular, Spain has a relatively high indicator for the number of seats held by women in national parliaments (44.3%, Figure 3). Slovenia, France and Portugal also have quotas close to 40%. Similar levels are found in the Western Balkans, North Macedonia, Serbia and Albania. In the two European macro-regions as a whole, however, the presence of women in parliament is more modest, especially in Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Greece. Among the countries of the Middle East, Israel has the highest value for this indicator (25%), while in all other countries it is below 20%. In North Africa, Egypt and Morocco have around a quarter of parliamentary seats occupied by women.
The Women, Business and the Law Index is a composite index that measures the effect of laws and regulations on women's economic opportunities (mobility, employment, pay, marriage, parenthood, entrepreneurship, assets and pensions). The best performers in the areas measured by the Women, Business and the Law Index are associated with a higher number of women in the workforce, higher incomes and better development outcomes. Given the economic importance of women's empowerment, one of the objectives of the Women, Business and the Law Index is to encourage governments to reform laws that hinder women's access to the labour market. On a scale of 1 to 100, the indicator shows higher average values in European Union countries. In particular, in 2023, the maximum values of the indicator achieved by four countries (Portugal, Spain, France and Greece) are the result of strong growth over more than two decades (Figure 3). The indicator levels in the Western Balkans are higher on average (with a minimum value of 85) than those recorded in the Middle East (which vary between a value of 26 in Palestine and over 82 in Turkey) and North Africa (where the index varies between approximately 50 and 76, with Morocco recording the highest value). Overall, compared to 2001, the countries with the largest increase in the index value (by more than 30 points), in the direction of a reduction in gender discrimination, were Turkey, Jordan, Slovenia and Morocco.
Figure 3 – Women Business and Law Index. 2001 and 2023 (scale 1-100)
...
Development and gender inequality
In the Human Development Reports published by the United Nations, among other measures updated annually in addition to the overall human development indices (see page ‘Population and Society/Other Social Issues’), there are two specifically dedicated to the status of women. In particular, the gender development index, calculated as the ratio between the human development index for women and that for men, measures the achievement of equal human development for women and men in terms of health, education and income; the gender inequality index, on the other hand, measures gender disadvantage based on indicators relating to reproductive health, empowerment and the labour market (see Methodology on Metadata on the thematic page).
The scatter plot of the two indicators places most European Union countries in the lower right quadrant (together with Israel), corresponding to the highest values of gender development and the lowest values of inequality. Among these countries, Portugal, Croatia, Slovenia and Cyprus stand out with a value of 1 in gender development, which also differs in terms of more marked gender inequality (Figure 4). In the Western Balkans, gender development is close to that of EU countries, with slightly higher levels of gender inequality. In contrast, several countries in the Middle East and North Africa occupy the upper left quadrant, with the least favourable values for both indicators: this is particularly the case for Syria, Morocco, Jordan, Algeria and Egypt.
Figure 4 – Gender Development Index and Gender Inequality Index. 2023 (min=0, max=1)
...
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Metadata
Indicators
Definition
The total number of newly enrolled females in the last class of primary or lower secondary education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the female population at the age at which they are expected to enter the last class of primary or lower secondary education. The age at which pupils would enter the class if they had started school at the official age of entry into primary education, had studied full-time and progressed without repeating or skipping a class.
Sources
UNESCO and estimate based on UNESCO data for Egypt 2022
Methodology
The data comes from population censuses and household surveys that collect data on the highest level of education or the level of education completed by the children and young people in a household, either by self-declaration or household declaration. In the first case, each family member over a certain age declares his or her level of education. In the second case, a person, usually the head of the household or another reference person, indicates the highest degree and/or level of education completed by each family member. Administrative data from the Ministries of Education on the structure of the education system (entry age and duration) are also needed. Surveys can serve as a source of data if they collect information for the age groups concerned. In addition to national surveys, international sample surveys, such as Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS, http://dhsprogram.com) or multi-indicator cluster surveys (MICS, http://mics.unicef.org), are another source. These surveys are designed to meet agreed international data needs and aim to ensure cross-border comparability while providing data for national policy purposes. These surveys are conducted regularly in selected countries, on average every 3-5 years.
Notes
The number of new students enrolled in the final year of a given level of education, regardless of age, is expressed as a percentage of the population of the age of entry into the last year of that level of education. If data on new students are not collected directly, they can be calculated by subtracting the number of pupils who repeat the last grade from the total number of students enrolled in the last grade. This is a gross measure and can therefore exceed 100% if there is a large number of pupils who have entered school early or late and/or who have repeated previous grades. The fact that the indicator can exceed 100% also makes it more difficult to interpret than the completion rate. With respect to the completion rate, the gross entry ratio to the last grade does not indicate how many children complete the last grade, but only how many children enter that grade. If final-year students drop out of school before graduation, the gross entry ratio to senior year overestimates completion. Data limitations prevent the number of students dropping out of school during the last year of lower secondary education from being taken into account. Therefore, this rate is a proxy that should be considered as a higher estimate of the actual lower secondary school completion rate.
The total number of new male enrolments in the last class of primary or lower secondary education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the male population at the age at which they are expected to enter the last class of primary or lower secondary education. The age at which pupils would enter the class if they had started school at the official age of entry into primary education, had studied full-time and progressed without repeating or skipping a class.
Sources
UNESCO and estimate based on UNESCO data for Egypt 2022
Methodology
The data comes from population censuses and household surveys that collect data on the highest level of education or the level of education completed by the children and young people in a household, either by self-declaration or household declaration. In the first case, each family member over a certain age declares his or her level of education. In the second case, a person, usually the head of the household or another reference person, indicates the highest degree and/or level of education completed by each family member. Administrative data from the Ministries of Education on the structure of the education system (entry age and duration) are also needed. Surveys can serve as a source of data if they collect information for the age groups concerned. In addition to national surveys, international sample surveys, such as Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS, http://dhsprogram.com) or multi-indicator cluster surveys (MICS, http://mics.unicef.org), are another source. These surveys are designed to meet agreed international data needs and aim to ensure cross-border comparability while providing data for national policy purposes. These surveys are conducted regularly in selected countries, on average every 3-5 years.
Notes
The number of new students enrolled in the final year of a given level of education, regardless of age, is expressed as a percentage of the population of the age of entry into the last year of that level of education. If data on new students are not collected directly, they can be calculated by subtracting the number of pupils who repeat the last grade from the total number of students enrolled in the last grade. This is a gross measure and can therefore exceed 100% if there is a large number of pupils who have entered school early or late and/or who have repeated previous grades. The fact that the indicator can exceed 100% also makes it more difficult to interpret than the completion rate. With respect to the completion rate, the gross entry ratio to the last grade does not indicate how many children complete the last grade, but only how many children enter that grade. If final-year students drop out of school before graduation, the gross entry ratio to senior year overestimates completion. Data limitations prevent the number of students dropping out of school during the last year of lower secondary education from being taken into account. Therefore, this rate is a proxy that should be considered as a higher estimate of the actual lower secondary school completion rate.
Percentage of parliamentary seats in the single or lower House held by women.
Sources
Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)
Methodology
The data are provided by national parliaments and updated after an election or parliamentary renewal. National parliaments also transmit their data to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) at least once a year and when the numbers change significantly. IPU member parliaments provide information on changes and updates to the IPU Secretariat. After each general election or renewal, a questionnaire is sent to parliaments to request the latest available data. If there is no response, other methods are used to obtain the information, such as the electoral management body, parliamentary websites or internet searches. Additional information gathered from other sources is regularly checked with Parliament. The data are updated on a monthly basis, up to the last day of the month.
Notes
The number of countries covered varies with the suspension or dissolution of parliaments. As of February 1, 2016, 193 countries are included. It can be difficult to obtain information on the results of by-elections and replacements due to death or resignation. These changes are ad hoc events that are harder to keep track of. By-elections, for example, are often not announced internationally like general elections. The data exclude the number and percentage of women in the upper houses of Parliament. Information is available on the website of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) at https://data.ipu.org/women-ranking. Parliaments vary greatly in their internal workings and procedures, but they typically legislate, oversee government, and represent voters. In terms of measuring women's contribution to political decision-making, this indicator may not be sufficient because some women may face obstacles in carrying out their parliamentary mandate fully and efficiently.
Composite index that measures the effect of laws and regulations on women's economic opportunities. The overall scores are calculated by comparing the average score of each index (Mobility, Workplace, Salary, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets and Pension) to 100, which is the maximum score.
Sources
World Bank
Methodology
The data are collected with standardized questionnaires to ensure comparability between the various economies. The questionnaires are administered to more than 2,000 respondents who are experts in family, labour and criminal law, including lawyers, judges, academics and members of civil society organisations working on gender issues. Respondents provide answers to questionnaires and references to relevant laws and regulations. The Women, Business and the Law team collects the texts of these codified sources of national law – constitutions, codes, laws, statutes, rules, regulations and procedures – and verifies the accuracy of the responses to the questionnaire. Thirty-five points are scored through eight indicators of four or five binary questions, with each indicator representing a different stage of a woman's career. Indicator-level scores are obtained by calculating the unweighted average of the questions within that indicator and scaling the result to 100. The overall scores are then calculated by taking the average of the questions of that indicator. Overall scores are then calculated by taking the average of each indicator, with 100 being the maximum possible score.
Notes
The methodology of Women, Business and the Law has limitations that must be considered when interpreting the data. All eight indicators are based on standardised assumptions to ensure comparability across economies. Comparability is one of the strengths of the data, but assumptions can also be limitations, as they may not capture all the restrictions or represent all the particularities of a country. A woman is assumed to reside in the main economic city, but in federal economies, laws affecting women may vary by state or province. Even in non-federal economies, rural and small-town women may face more restrictive local legislation. Such restrictions are not considered by Women, Business and the Law, unless they are also present in the main economic city.
Percentage of the female population aged 15 years and older who currently use any tobacco product (smoked and/or smokeless) on a daily or non-daily basis. Tobacco products include cigarettes, pipes, cigars, cigarillos, water pipes (hookah, shisha), bidis, kretek, heated tobacco products, and all forms of smokeless tobacco (oral and nasal). Tobacco products exclude e-cigarettes (which do not contain tobacco), e-cigarettes, e-hookahs, JUULs, and e-pipes. Rates are age-standardized relative to the WHO standard population.
Sources
World Health Organization (WHO)
Methodology
A statistical model based on a Bayesian negative binomial meta-regression is used to model the prevalence of current tobacco use for each country, separately for men and women." A full description of the method is available as a peer-reviewed article in The Lancet, Volume 385, No. 9972, pp. 966-976 (2015). Once age- and sex-specific prevalence rates from national surveys were collected into a dataset, the model was adapted to calculate trend estimates from 2000 to 2025. The model has two main components: (a) adjusting for missing indicators and age groups, and (b) generating an estimate of trends over time and a 95% credibility interval around the estimate. Depending on the completeness/completeness of survey data from a particular country, the model sometimes makes use of data from other countries to fill in information gaps. When a country has fewer than two national representative population surveys in different years, no attempt is made to fill in the data gaps and no estimates are calculated. To fill in the data gaps, the information is "borrowed" from countries in the same UN sub-region. The resulting trend lines are used to derive estimates for individual years, so that a number can be reported even if the country did not conduct a survey in that year. To make the results comparable across countries, prevalence rates have been standardized by age compared to the WHO standard population. Estimates for countries with irregular surveys or with many gaps in the data will have wide ranges of uncertainty and such results should be interpreted with caution.
Notes
Tobacco products include cigarettes, pipes, cigars, cigarillos, water pipes (hookah, shisha), bidis, kretek, heated tobacco products, and all forms of smokeless tobacco (oral and nasal). Tobacco products exclude e-cigarettes (which do not contain tobacco), e-cigarettes, e-hookahs, JUULs, and e-pipes. Rates are age-standardized relative to the WHO standard population. Estimates for countries with irregular surveys or with many gaps in the data have wide ranges of uncertainty and such results should be interpreted with caution.
Percentage of the male population aged 15 years and older who currently use any tobacco product (smoked and/or smokeless) on a daily or non-daily basis. Tobacco products include cigarettes, pipes, cigars, cigarillos, water pipes (hookah, shisha), bidis, kretek, heated tobacco products, and all forms of smokeless tobacco (oral and nasal). Tobacco products exclude e-cigarettes (which do not contain tobacco), e-cigarettes, e-hookahs, JUULs, and e-pipes. Rates are age-standardized relative to the WHO standard population.
Sources
World Health Organization (WHO)
Methodology
A statistical model based on a Bayesian negative binomial meta-regression is used to model the prevalence of current tobacco use for each country, separately for men and women." A full description of the method is available as a peer-reviewed article in The Lancet, Volume 385, No. 9972, pp. 966-976 (2015). Once age- and sex-specific prevalence rates from national surveys were collected into a dataset, the model was adapted to calculate trend estimates from 2000 to 2025. The model has two main components: (a) adjusting for missing indicators and age groups, and (b) generating an estimate of trends over time and a 95% credibility interval around the estimate. Depending on the completeness/completeness of survey data from a particular country, the model sometimes makes use of data from other countries to fill in information gaps. When a country has fewer than two national representative population surveys in different years, no attempt is made to fill in the data gaps and no estimates are calculated. To fill in the data gaps, the information is "borrowed" from countries in the same UN sub-region. The resulting trend lines are used to derive estimates for individual years, so that a number can be reported even if the country did not conduct a survey in that year. To make the results comparable across countries, prevalence rates have been standardized by age compared to the WHO standard population. Estimates for countries with irregular surveys or with many gaps in the data will have wide ranges of uncertainty and such results should be interpreted with caution.
Notes
Tobacco products include cigarettes, pipes, cigars, cigarillos, water pipes (hookah, shisha), bidis, kretek, heated tobacco products, and all forms of smokeless tobacco (oral and nasal). Tobacco products exclude e-cigarettes (which do not contain tobacco), e-cigarettes, e-hookahs, JUULs, and e-pipes. Rates are age-standardized relative to the WHO standard population. Estimates for countries with irregular surveys or with many gaps in the data have wide ranges of uncertainty and such results should be interpreted with caution.
Composite index that measures gender inequalities in three fundamental dimensions of human development: health, measured by the life expectancy at birth of women and men; education, measured by the years of schooling expected by women and men for children and the average years of schooling of women and men for adults aged 25 and over; the control of economic resources, measured by the estimated income from work of women and men. It is calculated as the ratio of women's Human Development Index (HDI) to men's.
Sources
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Methodology
It is a geometric mean of the normalised indices and ratios between female and male values, based on the following indicators: a) Life expectancy at birth: UN/DESA (2022a).b) Expected years of schooling: CEDLAS and World Bank (2022), ICF Macro Demographic and Health Surveys (various years), UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2022) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (various years). c) Average years of schooling for adults aged 25 and over: Barro and Lee (2018), ICF Macro Demographic and Health Surveys (various years), OECD (2022), UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2022) and UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (various years). d) Estimates of labour income made by the Human Development Report based on the female and male shares of the economically active population, the ratio of female to male wages in all sectors and the gross national income at purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2017, as well as the female and male shares of the ILO source population (2022), IMF (2022), UNDESA (2022a), United Nations Statistics Division (2022) and World Bank (2022).
Composite index that measures gender disadvantage in three dimensions: reproductive health, empowerment and labour market, for the largest number of countries where data of reasonable quality are available. It shows the loss of potential human development due to the inequality between female and male achievement in these dimensions. It ranges from 0, where women and men perform equally, to 1, where one of the two sexes performs the worst possible in all dimensions measured.
Sources
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Methodology
The values are calculated using the association-sensitive measure of inequality suggested by Seth (2009), which implies that the index is based on the general average of general means of different orders: the first aggregation is that of a geometric mean between dimensions; Separately calculated averages for women and men are then aggregated using a harmonic average between the genders. The index is based on the following indicators and sources: a) maternal mortality rate: WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank Group, United Nations Population Division (2019); b) adolescent birth rate): UN/DESA (2022a); (c) share of parliamentary seats held by each sex: IPU (2022); d) population with some level of secondary education (: Barro and Lee (2018), ICF Macro Demographic and Health Surveys (various years), OECD (2022), UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2022) and United Nations Children's Fund Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (various years); e) labour force participation rate: ILO (2022).
Notes
Generally, the index assumes values below 1, but can also reach values above 1, in countries where the gaps between the female and male condition are overcome as a whole.
