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Topic 08 of 18 · Country Index 2026

Netherlands: Gender & Equality

How wide is the gap between women's and men's lives?

Netherlands is placed joint 26th of 183 countries on gender & equality in the Country Index 2026, from 4 of its 4 key statistics. Readings behind it: Women, Business and the Law 100 (2024); Women's Political Empowerment Index 0.903 (2025).

Gender & Equality

joint26th

of 183 countries placed

Placed from 4 of 4 key statistics

Country Index 2026, all topics10th of 178 →

01The evidence

The 4 key statistics that decide it

Only these place Netherlands on gender & equality — one vote each. Every value is the publisher’s own, read at the edition the Country Index 2026 used — or, for a survey-based key, each country’s latest reading; the grey ticks are every other country it was compared with, lowest on the left.

Why these keys

  1. Key 1 of 4

    Women, Business and the Law

    World Bank Group

    Why it is a key: The gap written into the statute book, which a country can close while outcomes lag for a generation.

    2024 edition · data for 2024 · CC BY 4.0

    100

    WBL Index (0–100, where 100 is full legal parity)

    Higher is better

    Netherlands: 100. Across the 190 countries in this edition, values run from 26.25 (Palestine) to 100 (Sweden); the world median is 81.25.

    World median
    81.25
    Best in Western Europe
    100 5 countries
    Land neighbours
    Belgium 100 · Germany 100

    Each grey tick is one of 190 countries in the 2024 edition.

  2. Key 2 of 4

    Women's Political Empowerment Index

    V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg

    Why it is a key: Political power held by women in practice — their civil liberties, their part in civil society and their share of political office — where the law and custom keys measure the rules they live under.

    2025 edition · data for 2025 · CC BY-SA 4.0

    0.903

    Women's political empowerment index (0–1)

    Higher is better

    Netherlands: 0.903. Across the 176 countries in this edition, values run from 0.028 (Afghanistan) to 0.954 (Denmark); the world median is 0.772.

    World median
    0.772
    Best in Western Europe
    0.952 Belgium
    Land neighbours
    Belgium 0.952 · Germany 0.942

    Each grey tick is one of 176 countries in the 2025 edition.

  3. Key 3 of 4

    Firms with a Female Top Manager

    World Bank Group

    Why it is a key: The share of firms whose top manager is a woman: economic power held, beside the political power and the legal and social rules the other keys in this subject measure.

    Latest reading per country, 2016–2025 · Netherlands’s is from 2025 · CC BY 4.0

    11.8

    Firms with a female top manager (%)

    Higher is better

    Netherlands: 11.8. Across the 179 countries at their latest reading, values run from 1.429 (Qatar) to 62.9 (Kiribati); the world median is 19.16.

    World median
    19.16
    Best in Western Europe
    18.91 Austria
    Land neighbours
    Belgium 14.78 · Germany 13.29

    Each grey tick is one of 179 countries at its latest reading, 2016–2025.

  4. Key 4 of 4

    Social Institutions and Gender Index

    OECD

    Why it is a key: Discrimination in social institutions and norms. Correlates 0.850 with Women, Business and the Law, inside the 0.92 bar, and kept because law and custom diverge widely.

    2023 edition · data for 2023 · OECD Terms and Conditions — data clause

    9.5

    SIGI score (0 = no discrimination, 100 = absolute)

    Lower is better

    Netherlands: 9.5. Across the 140 countries in this edition, values run from 6.7 (Norway) to 67.4 (Mauritania); the world median is 25.2.

    World median
    25.2
    Best in Western Europe
    7.4 Belgium
    Land neighbours
    Belgium 7.4 · Germany 12.4

    Each grey tick is one of 140 countries in the 2023 edition.

03In context

Netherlands beside its neighbours

A position reads best beside the countries around it. Every position below is a place among all 183 countries on gender & equality, never a place within the region.

Western Europe
1st183rdNot placed · 41 countries with too few key statisticsNo data

The whole world on gender & equality

Netherlands and the countries it borders

The standing is each country’s place among all 183 placed on the topic; the other columns are the publishers’ own values, read at the edition the standing used.

CountryStandingWomen, Business and the LawWBL Index (0–100, where 100 is full legal parity)Women's Political Empowerment IndexWomen's political empowerment index (0–1)Firms with a Female Top ManagerFirms with a female top manager (%)Social Institutions and Gender IndexSIGI score (0 = no discrimination, 100 = absolute)
Belgium6th1000.95214.787.4
Germany18th1000.94213.2912.4
Netherlands=26th1000.90311.89.5

“—” means the publisher gives no reading for that country in that edition. A country needs readings on enough keys to be placed.

Across Western Europe

Every country in the sub-region, by its place among all 183.

Placed either side on gender & equality

The countries immediately above and below Netherlands in the topic’s list.

04Context, no vote

Where Netherlands is ahead of the world, and behind

8 more statistics filed under gender & equality, published in full and deliberately given no vote in the standing. Select a row for the publisher, the rank and the links.

Every country

Ahead of the world median4

Statistics on which Netherlands does better than the middle country measured.

  • Gender Inequality IndexUNDP Human Development Report Office · 2023 · world median 0.3510.013No real change since 2013

    Netherlands: 0.013 · world median 0.351 · GII (0 = full equality, 1 = maximum inequality). UNDP Human Development Report Office, 2023 edition, data for 2023.

    Published values in that edition run from 0.003 to 0.838; lower is better.

    Ranked 5th of 172 by UNDP Human Development Report Office.

    Chart and every countryThe 2023 dataset

  • Gender Social Norms IndexUNDP Human Development Report Office · 2023 · world median 91.8130.64No earlier reading

    Netherlands: 30.64 · world median 91.81 · People with at least one bias against gender equality (%). UNDP Human Development Report Office, 2023 edition, data for 2023.

    Published values in that edition run from 27.39 to 99.92; lower is better.

    Position 88th of 91 — derived here by ordering the published values, 1st = worst. The publisher ranks no country on this.

    Chart and every countryThe 2023 dataset

  • Maternal Mortality RatioMMEIG · 2023 · world median 46.654.3No real change since 2013

    Netherlands: 4.3 · world median 46.65 · Maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. UN Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group (MMEIG), 2023 edition, data for 2023.

    Published values in that edition run from 0.11 to 992.83; lower is better.

    Position 174th of 195 — derived here by ordering the published values, 1st = worst. The publisher ranks no country on this.

    Chart and every countryThe 2023 dataset

  • Female Labour Force Participation RateILO · 2025 · world median 53.3662.71▲ Improved since 2015

    Netherlands: 62.71 · world median 53.36 · Women aged 15+ in the labour force (%). International Labour Organization (ILO), 2025 edition, data for 2025.

    Published values in that edition run from 4.663 to 82.91; higher is better.

    Position 30th of 182 — derived here by ordering the published values, 1st = best. The publisher ranks no country on this.

    Chart and every countryThe 2025 dataset

Behind the world median1

Statistics on which Netherlands does worse than the middle country measured.

  • Female Share of Senior and Middle ManagementILO · 2024 · world median 35.8628.5▼ Worsened since 2014

    Netherlands: 28.5 · world median 35.86 · Women in senior and middle management (% of managers). International Labour Organization (ILO), 2024 edition, data for 2024.

    Published values in that edition run from 7.226 to 56.69; higher is better.

    Position 66th of 86 — derived here by ordering the published values, 1st = best. The publisher ranks no country on this.

    Chart and every countryThe 2024 dataset

Level with the median, or no median to compare1

  • Gender Development IndexUNDP Human Development Report Office · 2023 · world median 0.9710.971▲ Improved since 2013

    Netherlands: 0.971 · world median 0.971 · Gender Development Index (1.000 = parity). UNDP Human Development Report Office, 2023 edition, data for 2023.

    Published values in that edition run from 0.407 to 1.038; higher is better.

    Position 87th of 184 — derived here by ordering the published values, 1st = best. The publisher ranks no country on this.

    Chart and every countryThe 2023 dataset

No better end2

These describe the shape of a country — more is not better or worse, only different — so they are never ahead or behind.

  • Sex Ratio at BirthUN DESA Population Division · 2023 · world median 105.1105.2No real change since 2013

    Netherlands: 105.2 · world median 105.1 · Male births per 100 female births. UN DESA Population Division, 2023 edition, data for 2023.

    Published values in that edition run from 101.1 to 116.3.

    Chart and every countryThe 2023 dataset

  • Female Share of ResearchersUIS · 2024 · world median 38.1730.19No earlier reading

    Netherlands: 30.19 · world median 38.17 · Researchers who are women (% of headcount; 50 = parity). UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), 2024 edition, data for 2024.

    Published values in that edition run from 0 to 76.54.

    Chart and every countryThe 2024 dataset

No current reading for Netherlands

Births Attended by Skilled Health Staff (last 2003), Child Marriage and Female Genital Mutilation Prevalence. Listed rather than hidden, so the page can be checked against it.

05Country Index 2026

Gender & Equality among Netherlands’s 15 topics

Gender & Equality is Netherlands’s 8th best-placed topic of 15. Strongest first; each marker sits at the position divided by that topic’s field, so fields of different sizes compare fairly.

On the profile
  1. Work & Labour7th of 182
  2. Mobility & Trade6th of 147
  3. Poverty & Inequalityjoint 7th of 159
  4. Economy & Innovation8th of 176
  5. Development & Human Capital9th of 196
  6. Digital & Technology12th of 198
  7. Governance & Institutionsjoint 13th of 194
  8. Gender & Equalityjoint 26th of 183
  9. Democracy & Civil Liberties29th of 198
  10. Food & Agriculture32nd of 175
  11. Energy36th of 193
  12. Health & Wellbeing41st of 200
  13. Risk & Resilience46th of 192
  14. Peace & Securityjoint 46th of 177
  15. Environment & Sustainability143rd of 181

No standing on Education & Knowledge: too few of those topics’ key statistics are published for this country.

06The top of the list

Who leads on gender & equality

The three countries placed highest of 183, and the leaders Netherlands can most readily be measured against.

All 183 countries
  1. 1

    Latvia

    Northern Europe

    1st of 183 · 4 of 4 keys

    Photo: Marcin Szala · CC BY-SA 3.0, greyscale

  2. 2

    Taiwan

    Eastern Asia

    2nd of 183 · 3 of 4 keys

    Photo: xiangyang17 · CC BY-SA 2.0, greyscale

  3. 3

    Italy

    Southern Europe

    3rd of 183 · 4 of 4 keys

    Photo: Francisco Antunes · CC BY 2.0, greyscale

Placed highest nearby

  1. Highest in Europe

    Latvia1st4/4 keys

  2. Highest in Western Europe

    Belgium6th4/4 keys

  3. This page

    Netherlands=26th4/4 keys

Positions out of 183 placed on the topic. A country needs readings on enough keys to be placed, and the top of the list is often held on fewer of them.

07Questions

Netherlands on gender & equality: questions answered

Every answer is built from the numbers on this page, so none can say something the page does not.

How does Netherlands rank on gender & equality?

Netherlands is placed joint 26th of 183 countries on Gender & Equality in the Country Index 2026, from 4 of its 4 key statistics (Women, Business and the Law, Women's Political Empowerment Index, Firms with a Female Top Manager and Social Institutions and Gender Index). The position is this site’s ordering of published statistics, not a rank any publisher printed.

What is the latest Women, Business and the Law figure for Netherlands?

100 in 2024 (wBL Index (0–100, where 100 is full legal parity)), according to World Bank Group. The world median in the same edition was 81.25.

What is the latest Women's Political Empowerment Index figure for Netherlands?

0.903 in 2025 (women's political empowerment index (0–1)), according to V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg. The world median in the same edition was 0.772.

How does Netherlands compare with Germany on gender & equality?

Germany is placed 18th of 183, and Netherlands joint 26th. Women, Business and the Law: Germany 100, Netherlands 100; Women's Political Empowerment Index: Germany 0.942, Netherlands 0.903; Firms with a Female Top Manager: Germany 13.29, Netherlands 11.8; Social Institutions and Gender Index: Germany 12.4, Netherlands 9.5.

How have Netherlands’s gender & equality figures changed?

Women, Business and the Law rose from 89.38 in 2000 to 100 in 2024; Women's Political Empowerment Index fell from 0.924 in 2000 to 0.903 in 2025.

Which gender & equality statistics are missing for Netherlands?

No current reading is published for Netherlands on Births Attended by Skilled Health Staff, Child Marriage and Female Genital Mutilation Prevalence. They are listed rather than hidden, so the evidence on the page can be checked against it.

08Keep reading

Explore further

Gender & Equality

Netherlands, topic by topic

09Method

Method, sources and how to cite

What this topic does not measure

Violence against women is not a key here, because comparable data covers too few countries. The Gender Inequality Index is published here as context rather than as a key: its reading is driven largely by maternal and adolescent health, which moves with a country’s overall development and is already measured under Development and Health. Women’s labour force participation, women in management and child marriage are published here as context too.

About gender & equality, in full

How the Gender & Equality standing is decided, step by step

A standing is a place in a list, not a mark out of anything. This one is part of the Country Index 2026, and it is worked out like this.

  1. A few key indicators decide it; the rest are context. 4 indicators on this topic are keys and 11 are charted alongside them without a vote. That split is the point: if every statistic voted, importing five more of one kind would quietly change what the topic is about.
  2. Each key is read at one edition. ⚠ The keys behind this standing do not all describe the same year — they run from 2023 to 2025, because publishers release on their own schedules. Read the standing as “how this country places now”, not as a snapshot of one year.
  3. Every country’s published value is turned into a place within that one key’s own field, and then expressed as a share of that field — how far down this key’s list the country sits, rather than how many countries are above it. Keys where a higher published number is worse (terrorism, hunger, disaster risk) are turned round first, so the good end is always the same end.
  4. Dividing by the field first is the whole reason this works. A place carries the size of its list inside it: 22nd of 44 and 108th of 215 are the same showing, and averaging the numbers 22 and 108 says loudly that they are not. Fields on this site run from about 44 countries to about 215, so averaging raw places would reward a country for happening to be measured in small ones. Dividing each place by its own field removes the size and leaves only the showing.
  5. The shares are averaged, plainly. One key, one vote — no key is weighted above another, because any weighting would be this site’s opinion presented as a measurement. Countries are then put in order by that average, and the average itself is never published. It is our arithmetic with nothing anchoring it, so printing it would invite it to be read as a measurement somebody made. The position it produces, the band, and the keys it was built from are all published instead — every one of them checkable against the tables on this page.
  6. A country needs 2 of this topic’s 4 keys — half, rounded up, and never fewer than 2. A standing built from one reading, printed beside one built from four, is two different things sharing a column heading. 183 countries clear the bar here.
  7. A key has to earn its vote every edition. It must measure at least 120 countries (below that it starts measuring who was surveyed rather than the world), it must not have more than 10% of its field tied at either end, and it must not repeat another key in the same topic — Spearman correlation above 0.92 counts as repeating. A topic needs at least 2 surviving keys to place anyone at all; this one has 4.
  8. A standing is relative, and the grouping is ours. It says where a country places against the others measured alongside it, so it moves when they move. The publishers listed on this page did not agree to be read together, and each measures its subject its own way: the underlying numbers are theirs, the ordering on top is this site’s — the same method as the rest of the Country Index, applied to one subject instead of all of them.

The key statistics and their licences

The other 8 statistics on this page come from 5 publishers, each named beside its numbers, with every edition and licence on the datasets pages.

The standing itself is part of the Country Index 2026, published under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Photographs

Netherlands’s banner and the countries placed highest, from their profiles: Wikimedia Commons, shown in greyscale, each used under the licence named.

Cite this page

Nations Inquiry (2026). Netherlands: Gender & Equality — standing and statistics, Country Index 2026. https://nationsinquiry.com/countries/netherlands/gender

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