As of December 2024, women constituted 63.8 percent of the Rwandan parliament (lower or single house). This makes it the country with the highest share of women in parliament worldwide. Cuba had the second-highest share of female MPs with 55.7 percent, followed by Nicaragua. The European country with the highest percentage of women in their parliament was Andorra with 50 percent.

Over 60 percent of the seats in Rwanda's national parliament were held by women as of December 2022. The country had the strongest female participation in politics in Africa. It also ranked first globally, with the highest proportion of women in power in lower houses than in any other nation. Second in the African ranking, Senegal registered 46 percent of parliamentary seats occupied by females. South Africa, Namibia, and Mozambique also recorded a level of women participation above 40 percent. The best performing countries regarding female representation had in common the adoption of electoral quotas for women, a condition not present in the nations on the bottom of the ranking. In the last position, Nigeria had only 3.9 percent of women holding seats in the country's House of Representatives.

As of June 2024, Cuba led the ranking of countries with the largest share of women in Parliament in Latin America and the Caribbean, with **** percent. It was followed closely by Nicaragua, where **** percent of the MPs (members of parliament) were female. Women in politics In the history of democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean, there have been little more than a dozen females leading the executive power. Some of the most recent and notorious ones have been Dilma Rousseff in Brazil, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in Argentina, Michelle Bachelet in Chile, Laura Chinchilla in Costa Rica or Xiomara Castro in Honduras. Castro has been the most recently elected female president in Latin America, making Honduras one of the only ** countries in the world where the de facto highest position of executive power was held by a woman as of August of 2023. Still a long way to go The share of seats held by women in parliament in Latin America and the Caribbean region is above the global average, and it is actually the second largest one in the world, surpassed only by Australia and New Zealand. Moreover, Cuba, Nicaragua, Mexico, Bolivia, and Costa Rica have a higher percentage of females in parliament than countries such as Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, or France. This feat notwithstanding, Latin America and the Caribbean still struggles with a rather improvable performance in the gender gap index, especially when it comes to political empowerment. Even countries which seem to do better regarding gender equality, such as Cuba and Argentina have a low score in the category of political empowerment, which across all countries in the region tends to be remarkably lower than the score of the other categories: economic participation and opportunity, health and survival, and educational attainment.

As of August 2023, all five Nordic countries had a share of around ** percent of women on their parliaments. Iceland was the Nordic country with the highest share of women in the parliament, slightly edging Sweden and Finland at ** percent. Denmark had the lowest share of female parliamentarians. Although there has generally been more male prime ministers than female prime ministers in the Nordic countries, in August 2023, two of five of the prime ministers were women.

Around the world more than a quarter of the seats in parliaments are held by women. At the regional level, the Americas have the highest female representation in parliament, where women hold 36 percent of seats. Europe has the second-highest proportion of women in parliament, with women holding 32 percent of seats, while North Africa and the Middle East have the lowest proportion of women in parliament, with women holding 17 percent of seats only.

In 2025, men held the majority of seats in single and lower houses of national parliaments worldwide. However, this share has reduced from 86.7 percent in 2000 to 72.8 percent in 2025. In Europe and North America, the share of women in parliament increased from **** percent in 2000 to over ** percent in 2025. Australia and New Zealand were the global regions with the largest share of women in parliament, where ** percent of MPs are women.

The proportion of seats held by women in the national parliament in Sub-Saharan Africa saw no significant changes in 2024 in comparison to the previous year 2023 and remained at around 26.88 percent. With a decline of 0.2 percentage points (-0.74 percent), there is no significant change to 2023. The proportion of seats by women are the percentage of parliamentary seats in a single or lower chamber held by women.

The proportion of seats held by women in the national parliament in Singapore amounted to 29.29 percent in 2024. Between 1997 and 2024, the proportion rose by 24.53 percentage points, though the increase followed an uneven trajectory rather than a consistent upward trend.

Between 1990 and 2019, the share of women in the Danish Parliament, Folketinget increased somewhat, but necer reached more than ** percent. However, after the parliamentary election in the fall of 2022, the share increased to ** percent, the highest in history. Generally, the share of female candidates in the parliamentary elections has been significantly lower than the share of men. Folketinget consists of *** members. *** of these mandates derive from Danish political parties, while four mandates come from Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

In the 2022 parliamentary election in Sweden, 46.1 percent of the candidates elected were women. This was the same share as in the previous election. Sweden has one of the highest share of female MPs worldwide .

What percentage of the Parliament of Finland is female? In the 2023 election, ** of the *** elected representatives in the Parliament of Finland were female, which amounts to a share of ** percent.

The proportion of seats held by women in the national parliament in Rwanda was 63.75 percent in 2024. Between 1997 and 2024, the proportion rose by 46.61 percentage points, though the increase followed an uneven trajectory rather than a consistent upward trend.

The proportion of seats held by women in the national parliament in Kenya amounted to 23.28 percent in 2024. Between 1997 and 2024, the proportion rose by 20.31 percentage points, though the increase followed an uneven trajectory rather than a consistent upward trend.

The proportion of seats held by women in the national parliament in Indonesia stood at 21.03 percent in 2024. Between 1997 and 2024, the proportion rose by 9.63 percentage points, though the increase followed an uneven trajectory rather than a consistent upward trend.

The proportion of seats held by women in the national parliament in Pakistan amounted to ***** percent in 2024. Between 1997 and 2024, the proportion rose by ***** percentage points, though the increase followed an uneven trajectory rather than a consistent upward trend.

The proportion of seats held by women in the national parliament in China stood at ***** percent in 2024. Between 1998 and 2024, the proportion rose by **** percentage points, though the increase followed an uneven trajectory rather than a consistent upward trend.

In 2023, nearly ** percent of the national Parliamentary seats in South Africa were occupied by women. Over the observed period, seats occupied by women increased significantly from almost ** percent in 2000. The share of women being elected into the national assembly most evidently jumped to **** percent in the 2009 elections from almost ** percent in the previous election.

More than ** percent of all representatives elected for the Norwegian parliament in September 2021 were women, up from ** percent in the preceding election year, 2017. Compared to the share of women in the parliaments of other global countries, Norway ranks 13th. With **** percent, Rwanda’s parliament had the highest proportion of women.

Arbeiderpartiet with the highest number of representatives

The Norwegian parliament (Stortinget) consists of *** representatives elected on a four-year term from ** electoral districts. The seats are allocated through a proportional representation system, in which the parties that land above the electoral threshold receive roughly the same share of seats as share of votes. In the last election, the Labour Party received the highest number of seats and will form a coalition government headed by the incoming prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre.

Roughly three quarters of people voted

Voter turnout fell slightly from **** percent in the previous election to **** percent in 2021. **** million people aged 18 years or older were eligible to vote in the most recent parliamentary election in Norway.

The next parliamentary election is scheduled for September 2025.

In 2024, the proportion of female MPs in the United Kingdom parliament was estimated to be ** percent, an increase of seven percent when compared with the 2019 parliament, and an increase of ** percent when compared with 1979. During the provided time period, the largest increase from one parliament to another was in 1997 when the proportion of women increased from the 1992 Parliament's percentage.

What percentage of the parliament of Iceland is female? The share of women in the national parliament of Iceland, Althingi, was **** percent in 2021. This was as high as the record set in 2016. Despite having a high share of women in its parliament, it has never passed ** percent in Iceland. Still no European country has a parliament with more than ** percent of women.