Official statistics portal
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Official statistics of Latvia
Official Statistics Portal of Latvia
Key Indicators

Gender equality: power and decision-making

Legislation of Latvia ensures equal rights to both genders, still representation of males and females in leading positions is not equal. The greatest differences may be observed in politics and judicial system.

Politics

In Latvia, representation of females in decision-making has risen significantly over the past years.

Women accounted for almost one third of deputies elected to national parliament – Saeima – in 2022 (30 females out of 100 deputies or 30 %). The share in neighbouring countries was even smaller – 27.7 % in both Estonia and Lithuania.

Relatively high share of women may also be observed in local government. In 2017 local government elections 34 % of elected deputies were females but only each fourth local government (24.4 %) was leaded by a female. After the Riga City Council elections in 2020, the local government elections in June of 2021 and Varakļāni and Rēzekne municipality elections in September, a total of 30.5 % of all 43 municipal elected deputies were women. On the other hand, municipal chairman positions are still dominated by males – only three local governments (7.0 %) are leaded by a female.

Since September 15, 2023, the Prime Minister is a female. The Cabinet of Ministers (including Prime Minister) consists of 15 ministers, five of which are females (33.3 %). Since Latvia regained its independence, the country has had 17 Prime Minters, only two of which was female. During the period, Latvia had eight Presidents, only one of which was female.

Since September 20, 2023, Saiema Speaker position is taken by a female. Since the restoration of independence of the Republic of Latvia, Saiema in total has had 11 Saeima Speakers, five of which were females.

In the European Parliament, there always have been two or three female deputies from Latvia. In the election of 2019, three women deputies were elected among eight EU Parliament deputies, however work in the Parliament was overtaken by four males and four females. 

Judicial system

Female judges are more common within the court system of Latvia – 81 % of the judges were females in 2022. Since 2012, the indicator has risen by 5 percentage points. The largest share of women is recorded in courts of first instance and regional courts.

In 2022, women constituted majority of the notaries (87.7 %), moreover females dominate also the number of people employed in offices of prosecutors (60 %).

Women accounted for a half of the Latvian advocates in 2022; during the year the share almost did not changed and varied around 50 % (2022 – 50.0 %).

Gender Equality Index – power

Latvian Gender Equality Index1 calculated by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) in the domain Power, which measures gender equality in decision-making positions across the political, economic and social spheres, is assessed with 49.1 point (EU average 59.1). The main reason for the differences in the lower rating are political - for example, in Latvia compared to the EU, women are less often represented in the parliament, among members of regional municipalities, and on the boards of large companies.

Methodological explanations

1The index rating varies between 1 and 100, where 1 stands for absolute gender inequality and 100 for full gender equality.

Data source

Official statistics portal:

TSG040 Share of female judges
TSG050 Share of female public prosecutors
TSG060 Share of female advocates and notaries

Cabinet of Ministers Republic of Latvia:

Cabinet composition

EIGE:

Gender Equality Index, domain Power