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
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)
North Macedonia scored 62 points in 2019. The highest score was achieved in the domain of power. More work needs to be done in domains of time 55.8 and money 62.1. These scores are the lowest when compared with the EU average for these domains.
Gender Equality Index for North Macedonia (2019)
Albania (2019)
Albania scored 60.4 points in 2019. 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 (2019)
Montenegro (2019)
Montenegro scored 55 points in 2019. The highest score is in domain of health, followed by the domain of money, even though this domain has the biggest gap with the EU. The lowest score is in the domains of power (35.1) and time (52.7).
Gender Equality Index Montenegro 2019
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.