GGE03
Gender equality: social security
Gender equality requires parity in all areas of life, including the way how families are built and duties divided, which, in turn, affects one’s ability to integrate into the labour market as well as size of the benefits received. National policies and European directives also may contribute to equality, by working out mechanisms reducing social inequality and poverty risks.
Marriages
At the beginning of 2025, 38.7 % or 332.6 thousand of all men and 34.3 % or 342.2 thousand of all women were married. The average age of men at first marriage was 34.3 years and of women – 32.1 years; the figure has gone up by five years since 2010. In 2024, 33.1 % of men and 33.7 % of women remarried.
The number of marriages concluded in younger age groups is declining every year. Out of all people who registered marriage in 2024, 5.9 % of men and 11.5 % of women were aged 24 and younger (16.4 % and 28.8 % in 2010; 30.5 % and 44.9 % in 2000, respectively).
Families with children
At the beginning of 2025, there were 269.8 thousand households in Latvia with children and young people under the age of 24. 80.9 thousand or 30 % of them are single-parent families.
Single-parent households in most cases (60.8 %) are households with one child, 29 % – with two children, and 10.2 % – with three or more children. In three out of four single-parent families (77.5 %) the only adult is the child's mother.
However, undivorced couples also tend to divide childcare responsibilities and household chores unfairly, e.g., when asked about frequency of doing housework (cooking and/or housekeeping), 93 % of women and 75 % of men in Latvia said that do housework at least several times a week.
The study Novatore Baltic Gender Equality Barometer conducted In February 2024 found that 67 % of men believe that in Latvia household chores in families are divided evenly, compared to just 38 % of women, moreover 57 % of men believe that there is equality in raising children, compared to 32 % of women. Additionally, 74 % of women and only 35 % of men agreed with the statement ‘It is me who mainly takes care of the house and children’.
Results from the survey about mobility of population conducted by the CSB in 2021 show that for the reason of accompanying children (incl. taking to or picking from somewhere) women on a daily basis made more trips than men (2.7 and 2.3 times a day, respectively). Although accompanying children was the main short trip purpose, there were several other reasons why women were going somewhere, e.g., to accompany parents to a doctor appointment, take a neighbour/friend to the store or elsewhere, pick up/drop off a colleague on the way to/from work, and thus women made 2.8 trips a day, compared to men making 2.6 trips a day. In terms of being a passenger or a driver, women on average made 2.9 trips per day driving a car and 2.3 trips per day being a passenger while men 2.6 and 1.7 trips a day, respectively.
In Latvia, both mothers and fathers are provided with the opportunity to receive a childbirth benefit and paid leave after the birth of a child. With the declining birth rate, the number of maternity and paternity benefits due to the birth of a child has decreased in 2024.
The number of maternity benefits paid in 2024 per case was 4 830.92 euros (in 2023 – 4 389.49 euros). Since the number of births has been decreasing since 2016, the number of maternity benefit cases (in 2024 – 11.5 thousand) and paternity benefit cases (in 2024 – 8.2 thousand) is also correspondingly smaller. The increase in the number of paternity benefits and the amount granted in 2023 can be explained by changes in the rules for granting the benefit - from 1 August 2022, the father of the child has the right to 10 working days of leave (until 1 August 2022, 10 calendar days) and the formula for calculating the paternity benefit has been changed in the rules for granting the benefit.
*Including cases when in 2023 the benefit was recalculated due to the introduction of a new formula for calculating its size and a new procedure for granting, recalculating and paying it for children born on 1 August 2022 or later.
Prolonged childcare leave and frequent absence from work due to childcare responsibilities result in an interrupted participation on the labour market thus affecting ones competitiveness and professional growth.
Women make majority of the childcare benefit (paid for children aged under 1.5 and for children aged 1.5–2) recipients, i.e., 82.2 % in 2024, compared to 17.8 % of men. Striving to reduce inequality in the division of parental responsibilities, since 2023, national legislation provides for a longer childcare leave. It was extended by one month, however, on a condition that each parent has a non-transferable 2-month long part of a leave which can be used up to the moment the child is 8 years old. Both the employed (employees or self-employed) and the unemployed parents (not socially insured) are entitled to the childcare benefit. In 2023, with the introduction of this condition, the non-transferable leave portion of the parental benefit was granted to an average of 122 men and 49 women per month, while in 2024, the non-transferable leave portion was already used by an average of 1,417 women and 481 men.
Childcare benefit is available to both working (employed or self-employed) and non-working parents (not socially insured). In 2024, 32.4 thousand parents received childcare benefit for a child up to 1.5 years of age, of which 3.8 thousand were not socially insured and were only granted childcare benefit because they were not entitled to parental benefit. Compared to 2016, the share of parents who are not socially insured is decreasing: from 19.2 % in 2016 to 11.9 % of parents in 2024. Childcare allowance for a child up to 1.5 years of age from parents who were not socially insured is more often received by women: in 2024, 92.8 % of benefit recipients were women and 7.2 % were men.
The recipient of parental benefit can change during the payment period – it can be received by mother or father interchangeably. In 2024, the share of fathers who, upon receiving parental benefit for childcare (i.e., the benefit paid for both children aged under 1 and children aged under 1.5), go on leave increased from 19 % in 2023 to 24.3 % in 2024. It was in 2024 that the proportionally largest number of fathers was registered, while the second largest number of fathers who received parental benefit was in 2016, when 20% of men received the benefit. There was also a percentage increase in the number of fathers who received parental benefit for childcare up to 1 year of age (43.3 % men in 2023, 45.1 % men in 2024).
Sickness benefit
In 2024, women represented the largest share of sickness benefit1 recipients – 58.1 % compared to 41.9 % for men. However, the average size of the sickness benefit received by women was significantly smaller than that received by men – EUR 714.66 and EUR 1 122.96 per sickness case, respectively.
Even though in the past five years more fathers tend to stay home when their child falls ill, mothers still make up majority of parents applying for the sick leave certificate B – in 2024, 66.1 % of women and 33.9 % of men received the sickness benefit to compensate for the income lost while caring for a sick child.
In terms of other causes of incapacity to work, the gender gap reveals that women predominantly receive sickness benefit due to occupational diseases (3 582 or 64.9 % compared to 1 940 or 35.1 % for men) and general illness (55.2 % and 44.8 %, respectively). However, men are in the majority for receiving sickness benefit due to accidents at work (1 031 or 65.8 % compared to 536 or 34.2 %, respectively) and traffic accidents (487 or 55.5% and 391 or 44.5%, respectively).
Trusteeship over persons with restricted capacity to act
A trusteeship, as a person’s capacity to act is restricted by a court, is established over persons, e.g., with health disorders of mental nature or other, due to living dissolutely or wastefully, due to excessive use of alcohol or other narcotics, etc.2 The number of people under trusteeship has increased from 2 961 in 2013 to 3 818 at the end of 2024 (by 28.9 %) while the number of persons with restricted capacity to act placed under trusteeship during year has gone up from 252 to 502 (by 99.2 %).
Relatives and spouses are appointed as trustees the most often. Gender breakdown of the trustees show significant gender gap – at the end of 2024, women accounted for 2 798 or 84 % of all trustees and men for 531 or 16 %. In addition, women also predominated in the number of trustees appointed during the year – 375 or 76.2 % and 117 or 23.8 % in 2024, respectively.
Pensions
Equal wages and salaries ensure that both men and women receive equal pension after the retirement. However, gender pay gap results in smaller pensions received by women – in 2024, the average size of pension paid to men was 10 % higher than that paid to women (EUR 585.39 and EUR 531.95, respectively).
Gender and size breakdown of the granted pensions shows that men more commonly receive up to EUR 300 (16 % compared to 10.9 %) and more than EUR 600 (47.7 % compared to 36.9 %), while the largest share of women receive EUR 300–600 (52.2 % compared to 36.3 %).
A new benefit for the spouse of a deceased beneficiary of pension was introduced as of 1 January 2019 (in the case of death of a beneficiary of pension, a benefit of 50 % from the pension granted to the deceased spouse shall be paid to the surviving spouse). In 2024, an average of 5.4 thousand persons received this benefit every month, of which women made 3.9 thousand or 71.8 % and men – 1.5 thousand or 28.2 %. The gender breakdown of this benefit recipients was similar to that recorded in 2023 – women accounted for 72.5 % and men for 27.5 %.
Analysis of the statutory and actual age of retirement in Latvia shows that both genders prefer to retire earlier. In 2024, when national retirement age was 64 years and 9 months, women on average retired at the age of 64.01 while men – at the age of 64.12. During the last 12 years, even though the statutory age for retirement has risen by 2 years and 9 months, the actual age of retirement has grown even more.
Other EU countries (e.g., Lithuania, Bulgaria, the Netherlands) are also rising the national retirement age, and majority of them are moving towards the same retirement age for both genders. Retirement age in the EU varies between 60 and 67 years with the highest recorded in Sweden, Germany and Greece (all of which have set equal retirement age for both genders). In countries having different retirement age for men and women, women usually are entitled to retire earlier.
Risk of poverty
Unequal labour earnings and the resulting pensions lead to a greater share of women at risk of poverty. EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) show that 23.6 % of women and 19.3 % of men were at risk of poverty in 2023. This gap is also caused by the predominance of women in the elderly population (people aged 65 and over). Women who live longer after retirement largely depend upon the old-age pension (which is lower than both the labour earnings and the old-age pension received by men). If women aged 18 to 24 are significantly less at risk of poverty than men of their age (20.1 % and 10.2 %, respectively), then at the age of active working age (25 to 64) the situation of men and women becomes equal. But upon reaching the age of 65, the proportion of women at risk of poverty becomes significantly higher (45.4 %) than men (33.2 %).
Gender Equality Index – time
Latvian Gender Equality Index3 calculated by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) in the domain Time, which measures gender inequalities in allocation of time spent doing care and domestic work and social activities, is rated with 62.6 points, which is under the EU average (68.5). Moreover, the time spent on these activities by Latvian men is lower than the EU average.
Methodological explanations:.
1Sickness benefit (certificate B) is paid to an employee or self-employed person, if he/she cannot come into employment and loses income derived from employment or from economic activity. The data only cover the people who applied for a sick-leave certificate B.
2Trusteeship is under the purview of the Orphan’s and Custody Courts who, based on a court decision, establish a trusteeship: over persons with health disorders of mental nature or other whose capacity to act is restricted by a court; over persons due to their living dissolutely or wastefully or over persons who due to excessive use of alcohol or other narcotics threaten to drive them or their family into privation or poverty and whose capacity to act has been restricted by a court; over the property of absent and missing persons; over the entirety of property of an estate; over the entirety of property subject to concursus proceedings.
3The 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:
ILV010 Marriages and divorces by age
NNR020 At-risk-of-poverty rate by age and sex
PPP020 Maternity and paternity benefits
PPP040 Average size of old-age and disability pensions paid by sex (euros)
MVS060 Private households with children aged 24 and under by type of household and number of children at the beginning of year
Results of the Survey Social and cultural participation
Eurostat database:
LFST_HHINDWS Total population at risk of poverty
LFST_HHINDWS Households consisting of one adult with children by sex of the adult
Eurofound:
Frequency of caring for and/or educating your children
Frequency of cooking and/or housework