⚠️ Unconfirmedsocial2024
Share of national parliaments with a gender quota law (lower or single house)
Percent of countries that have enacted a legal gender quota for national parliamentary elections (lower/single house), using IPU Parline data.
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Key Insights
Global Average
0.2%
0Countries Covered
191
with available data
Highest
Bulgaria
1.0%
Lowest
Brunei Darussalam
0.0%
Top 5 Countries
1Bulgaria1.0%
2Burundi1.0%
3Colombia1.0%
4Democratic Republic of the Congo1.0%
5Croatia1.0%
By Region
South America0.4%(7 countries)
Other0.2%(113 countries)
Europe0.2%(31 countries)
Africa0.1%(9 countries)
Asia0.0%(25 countries)
Key Findings
- •Legal gender quota laws for national parliamentary elections are common in parts of Africa and Latin America, but rare in many high-income OECD countries.
- •Reserved-seat systems and legislated candidate quotas are both counted, despite potentially very different impacts.
- •A quota law can exist without strong enforcement mechanisms; effectiveness depends on design (placement rules, sanctions, district magnitude).
Country Rankings
Top 10 Countries
Bottom 10 Countries
Data Analysis
Value Distribution
How countries are distributed across the value range
Low (0.0%)High (1.0%)
Regional Comparison
Average values by world region (Global avg: 0.2%)
South America (7)
Other (113)
Europe (31)
Africa (9)
Asia (25)
North America (4)
Oceania (2)
About This Statistic
Many countries use legal gender quotas to increase women’s representation in national legislatures. This statistic captures whether a country has a quota written into law for elections to the lower (or single) house of parliament, as recorded by the Inter‑Parliamentary Union (IPU) in its Parline database.
Unlike outcomes (e.g., share of seats held by women), quota laws measure a structural policy choice. They vary widely in design—reserved seats, candidate quotas, placement mandates (e.g., zipper rules), and enforcement mechanisms—so the presence of a law does not guarantee similar effects across countries, but it is a comparable indicator of formal commitment to gender-balanced candidate selection.
Full Data
| Rank ↑ | Country ↕ | Value ↕ |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bulgaria | 1.0% |
| 2 | Burundi | 1.0% |
| 3 | Colombia | 1.0% |
| 4 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | 1.0% |
| 5 | Croatia | 1.0% |
| 6 | Czech Republic | 1.0% |
| 7 | Ecuador | 1.0% |
| 8 | France | 1.0% |
| 9 | Malawi | 1.0% |
| 10 | Morocco | 1.0% |
| 11 | Mozambique | 1.0% |
| 12 | Nepal | 1.0% |
| 13 | Papua New Guinea | 1.0% |
| 14 | Paraguay | 1.0% |
| 15 | Philippines | 1.0% |
| 16 | Rwanda | 1.0% |
| 17 | Zimbabwe | 1.0% |
| 18 | Spain | 1.0% |
| 19 | Uganda | 1.0% |
| 20 | United Republic of Tanzania | 1.0% |
| 21 | Virgin Islands, U.S. | 1.0% |
| 22 | Burkina Faso | 1.0% |
| 23 | Venezuela | 1.0% |
| 24 | Zambia | 1.0% |
| 25 | Armenia | 1.0% |
| 26 | Barbados | 1.0% |
| 27 | Bolivia | 1.0% |
| 28 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 1.0% |
| 29 | Botswana | 1.0% |
| 30 | Brazil | 1.0% |
| 31 | Solomon Islands | 1.0% |
| 32 | Myanmar | 0.0% |
| 33 | Belarus | 0.0% |
| 34 | Cambodia | 0.0% |
| 35 | Cameroon | 0.0% |
| 36 | Canada | 0.0% |
| 37 | Cape Verde | 0.0% |
| 38 | Cayman Islands | 0.0% |
| 39 | Central African Republic | 0.0% |
| 40 | Sri Lanka | 0.0% |
| 41 | Chad | 0.0% |
| 42 | Chile | 0.0% |
| 43 | People's Republic of China | 0.0% |
| 44 | Comoros | 0.0% |
| 45 | Republic of the Congo | 0.0% |
| 46 | Costa Rica | 0.0% |
| 47 | Cuba | 0.0% |
| 48 | Cyprus | 0.0% |
| 49 | Benin | 0.0% |
| 50 | Denmark | 0.0% |
| 51 | Dominican Republic | 0.0% |
| 52 | El Salvador | 0.0% |
| 53 | Equatorial Guinea | 0.0% |
| 54 | Ethiopia | 0.0% |
| 55 | Eritrea | 0.0% |
| 56 | Estonia | 0.0% |
| 57 | Faroe Islands | 0.0% |
| 58 | Falkland Islands (Malvinas) | 0.0% |
| 59 | Fiji | 0.0% |
| 60 | Finland | 0.0% |
| 61 | Åland Islands | 0.0% |
| 62 | Djibouti | 0.0% |
| 63 | Gabon | 0.0% |
| 64 | Georgia | 0.0% |
| 65 | Republic of The Gambia | 0.0% |
| 66 | State of Palestine | 0.0% |
| 67 | Germany | 0.0% |
| 68 | Ghana | 0.0% |
| 69 | Kiribati | 0.0% |
| 70 | Greece | 0.0% |
| 71 | Greenland | 0.0% |
| 72 | Guatemala | 0.0% |
| 73 | Guinea | 0.0% |
| 74 | Guyana | 0.0% |
| 75 | Haiti | 0.0% |
| 76 | Honduras | 0.0% |
| 77 | Hungary | 0.0% |
| 78 | Iceland | 0.0% |
| 79 | India | 0.0% |
| 80 | Indonesia | 0.0% |
| 81 | Islamic Republic of Iran | 0.0% |
| 82 | Iraq | 0.0% |
| 83 | Ireland | 0.0% |
| 84 | Israel | 0.0% |
| 85 | Italy | 0.0% |
| 86 | Cote d'Ivoire | 0.0% |
| 87 | Jamaica | 0.0% |
| 88 | Japan | 0.0% |
| 89 | Kazakhstan | 0.0% |
| 90 | Jordan | 0.0% |
| 91 | Kenya | 0.0% |
| 92 | North Korea | 0.0% |
| 93 | South Korea | 0.0% |
| 94 | Kuwait | 0.0% |
| 95 | Kyrgyzstan | 0.0% |
| 96 | Lao People's Democratic Republic | 0.0% |
| 97 | Lebanon | 0.0% |
| 98 | Lesotho | 0.0% |
| 99 | Latvia | 0.0% |
| 100 | Liberia | 0.0% |
| 101 | Libya | 0.0% |
| 102 | Lithuania | 0.0% |
| 103 | Luxembourg | 0.0% |
| 104 | Madagascar | 0.0% |
| 105 | Malaysia | 0.0% |
| 106 | Maldives | 0.0% |
| 107 | Mali | 0.0% |
| 108 | Malta | 0.0% |
| 109 | Mauritania | 0.0% |
| 110 | Mauritius | 0.0% |
| 111 | Mexico | 0.0% |
| 112 | Monaco | 0.0% |
| 113 | Mongolia | 0.0% |
| 114 | Moldova, Republic of | 0.0% |
| 115 | Montenegro | 0.0% |
| 116 | Oman | 0.0% |
| 117 | Namibia | 0.0% |
| 118 | Netherlands | 0.0% |
| 119 | New Caledonia | 0.0% |
| 120 | Vanuatu | 0.0% |
| 121 | New Zealand | 0.0% |
| 122 | Nicaragua | 0.0% |
| 123 | Niger | 0.0% |
| 124 | Nigeria | 0.0% |
| 125 | Norway | 0.0% |
| 126 | Pakistan | 0.0% |
| 127 | Panama | 0.0% |
| 128 | Peru | 0.0% |
| 129 | Poland | 0.0% |
| 130 | Portugal | 0.0% |
| 131 | Guinea-Bissau | 0.0% |
| 132 | Timor-Leste | 0.0% |
| 133 | Qatar | 0.0% |
| 134 | Russian Federation | 0.0% |
| 135 | Saint Helena | 0.0% |
| 136 | Saint Kitts and Nevis | 0.0% |
| 137 | Saint Lucia | 0.0% |
| 138 | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 0.0% |
| 139 | Saudi Arabia | 0.0% |
| 140 | Senegal | 0.0% |
| 141 | Serbia | 0.0% |
| 142 | Sierra Leone | 0.0% |
| 143 | Singapore | 0.0% |
| 144 | Slovakia | 0.0% |
| 145 | Vietnam | 0.0% |
| 146 | Slovenia | 0.0% |
| 147 | Somalia | 0.0% |
| 148 | South Africa | 0.0% |
| 149 | South Sudan | 0.0% |
| 150 | Sudan | 0.0% |
| 151 | Suriname | 0.0% |
| 152 | Eswatini | 0.0% |
| 153 | Sweden | 0.0% |
| 154 | Switzerland | 0.0% |
| 155 | Syrian Arab Republic | 0.0% |
| 156 | Tajikistan | 0.0% |
| 157 | Thailand | 0.0% |
| 158 | Togo | 0.0% |
| 159 | Trinidad and Tobago | 0.0% |
| 160 | United Arab Emirates | 0.0% |
| 161 | Tunisia | 0.0% |
| 162 | Türkiye | 0.0% |
| 163 | Turkmenistan | 0.0% |
| 164 | Turks and Caicos Islands | 0.0% |
| 165 | Ukraine | 0.0% |
| 166 | The Republic of North Macedonia | 0.0% |
| 167 | Egypt | 0.0% |
| 168 | United Kingdom | 0.0% |
| 169 | United States of America | 0.0% |
| 170 | Uruguay | 0.0% |
| 171 | Uzbekistan | 0.0% |
| 172 | Samoa | 0.0% |
| 173 | Yemen | 0.0% |
| 174 | Afghanistan | 0.0% |
| 175 | Albania | 0.0% |
| 176 | Algeria | 0.0% |
| 177 | Andorra | 0.0% |
| 178 | Angola | 0.0% |
| 179 | Antigua and Barbuda | 0.0% |
| 180 | Argentina | 0.0% |
| 181 | Australia | 0.0% |
| 182 | Austria | 0.0% |
| 183 | Bahamas | 0.0% |
| 184 | Bahrain | 0.0% |
| 185 | Bangladesh | 0.0% |
| 186 | Belgium | 0.0% |
| 187 | Bermuda | 0.0% |
| 188 | Bhutan | 0.0% |
| 189 | Belize | 0.0% |
| 190 | Virgin Islands, British | 0.0% |
| 191 | Brunei Darussalam | 0.0% |
Showing 191 of 191 countries
Topics
Data Source
This data comes from Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) (2024).
View Original Source