The Gender Equality Index is an important policy-making tool that measures how far (or close) the EU and its Member States are from achieving gender equality.
The Gender Equality Index also provides results for each of the six core domains: money, knowledge, time, power and health. There are two additional domains: intersecting inequalities and violence.
As a comparable measurement tool, the Gender Equality Index is important for reflecting gender (in)equalities among the Western Balkans and Türkiye and monitoring progress of gender equality in different areas of society. It also allows for regional comparison among Member States and EU candidate countries and potential candidates. Our aim is to develop full or partial Indices for up to six beneficiaries by the end of this project.
The development of Gender Equality Indices started in the Western Balkans and Türkiye in 2015 and it continues to be the flagship initiative of the project.
So far, five EU candidate countries and potential candidates have calculated their Gender Equality Index. Their scores are slightly lower than the EU-27 average, which currently has an overall score of 68.5 (2022).
Click on the image below to see the Gender Equality Index scores of the EU Member States, candidate countries and potential candidates.
Gender Equality Index scores in the IPA region
Montenegro (2019, 2023)
Montenegro published their first Gender Equality Index in 2019 and scored 55 points. The highest score was in the domain of health (86.9), while the lowest score was in the domain of power (35.1).
In 2023, Montenegro released the scores of their second Gender Equality Index. It shows an increase of 4.3 points (59.3) compared to 2019. More positive changes can be observed in the domains of power (+9.0) and work (+5.5), while it decreased in the domain of knowledge (-1.7).
The Index for Montenegro 2023 is 9.3 points lower than the EU-27 average (68.6 in 2022). Across the index domains, it shows the biggest gap in the domain of money (20.7 points behind EU-27), and the smallest gap in the domain of health (0.8 points behind EU-27). The full report with situation analysis is expected later in the year.
Gender Equality Index for Montenegro 2023 (factsheet)
Gender Equality Index Montenegro 2019
Bosnia and Herzegovina (2022)
Bosnia and Herzegovina is the fifth country in the region of the Western Balkans to have made pivotal steps in development of partial Gender Equality Index. The scores are available for two domains: power (51.2, which was 3.8 points lower than the EU average and knowledge domain with the score of 58.7, which was 4 points lower than the EU average. In the domain of health - sub-domain of status BiH scored 89.8 and 97.7 for the sub-domain of access. In domain of work, BIH scored 62.8 in the sub-domain of participation.
Moving towards the Gender Equality Index Bosnia and Herzegovina 2022
Serbia (2016, 2018 and 2021)
Serbia was the first country outside the European Union to calculate the Gender Equality Index and to launch it back in 2016. Serbia scored 52.4 points in 2016, 55.8 in 2018 and 58.0 in 2021. This indicates continuous, albeit slow progress in improving gender equality.
The 2021 Index edition registered the biggest improvement in the domain of power. This domain has increased by 18.5 points since the first edition of the Index for Serbia in 2016. If this pace were to continue, it would take 2.5 years to achieve full equality in this domain. The progress in other domains was slower, with the domain of work increasing by 2.1 points, the domain of money by 0.6 points, and the domain of health by 0.7 points. However, the score in the domain of knowledge has decreased by 0.9 points since 2016.
The 2021 report also includes a thematic focus on digitalisation and analyses the situation of violence against women. A new set of indicators is presented so the value for the domain of violence can be calculated in future editions of the Index.
Gender Equality Index for the Republic of Serbia (2018)
Gender Equality Index: Measuring gender equality in Serbia (2016)
North Macedonia (2019, 2022)
North Macedonia published two Gender Equality Index editions that allow to monitor the progress over time. It scored 62 points in 2019 and 64.5 points in 2022. More significant changes can be observed in the domains of Power (+6.0), Knowledge (+2.8) and Money (+2.2). No progress in the domain of Time due to lack of new data and only an insignificant change In the domain of Health (+0.1). If this pace is continued, the country will need ~57 years to achieve full gender equality.
North Macedonia drew closer to the EU scores and is now just 3.5 points behind the EU-27 (2021) average. In the domain of Power, the country has a 3.6 points higher score than the EU average. More work needs to be done in domains of Money and Time, which are respectively by 18.1 and 9.1 points behind the EU average.
The 2022 report also includes a set of data on prevalence of violence against women.
Gender Equality Index for North Macedonia (2022)
Индекс на родова еднаквост во Северна Македонија (2022)
Gender Equality Index for North Macedonia (2019)
Albania (2020)
Albania scored 60.4 points in 2020. The highest score was in the domain of health, followed by the domain of work, power and money. The lowest scores were in the domains of knowledge and time. Albania’s score in the domain of power (60.9) is higher than the EU average, which scores 47.6.
Gender Equality Index for the Republic of Albania (2020)
EIGE supports EU candidate countries and potential candidates in their calculation of Gender Equality Indices by assessing their readiness, providing coaching and continuous assistance in applying the methodology, finding secondary sources of indicators and ensuring the overall quality of the Gender Equality Index.