GGE05
Gender equality: education and science
Life-long learning increases competitiveness in the labour market. Irrespective of both genders having equal access to the education, there still are some differences between the educational attainment thereof.
Educational attainment of the population
In 2024, 41.0 % of women and 25.8 % of men in Latvia had a higher education. The number of vocational school graduates, in turn, was dominated by men – 30.5 % and 25.5 %, respectively. Men were more likely to not continue their education further after getting a primary education. Compared to the European Union average, the proportion of men with a higher education in Latvia was 2.3 percentage points lower, while that of women was 8.8 percentage points higher than in the EU.
Employment of Higher Education Institution, College, and Vocational School Graduates
Vocational schools
In 2024, women most often graduated from service education programmes in vocational schools, while men - from engineering, manufacturing and construction programmes.
Health and welfare programme graduates were mostly women (93.5 % of all graduates) as well as social sciences, business and law programmes (84.8 %). In turn, majority of men graduated from science, mathematics and computing (93.8 %) and engineering, manufacturing and construction (88.1 %) programmes.
In 2023, 56.4 % of men and 55.8 % of women aged 18–24 were employed after they acquired vocational education, whereas 2.8 % of men and 3.5 % of women were unemployed. Among economically inactive male graduates, 30.8 % continued studies and among economically inactive female graduates – 30.8 %.
Craft and related trade worker was the most popular occupation among male vocational school graduates (24.0 %), while for women it was service and sales worker (48.0 %). Elementary occupation (21.5 % of men) and professional (12.8 % of women) were the second most popular occupations.
Economically active men aged 18–24, who have acquired vocational education, more frequently worked in manufacturing (17.7 %), wholesale and retail (17.7 %), and construction (12.7 %). Women more often chose to be employed in wholesale and retail trade, as well as in accommodation and food services (27.9 % and 16.5 %, respectively).
Higher education institutions and colleges
Almost two-thirds (58.8 %) of the students enrolled in higher education institutions in the 2024/2025 academic year were women. The number of female students enrolled increased by 4.0 % or 695 female students, while the number of male students enrolled decreased by 3.4 % or 409 students. In education study programmes, 87.4 % of the students enrolled were female. However, compared to the previous academic year, the number of male students enrolled increased by 48.5 % or 144 students. The largest increase in the number of female students enrolled was in health care and social welfare programs – 17.3 % or 474 female students. In turn, the most significant increase in the number of male students enrolled was in service programs – 22.8 % or 334 students. The largest decrease in the number of male students enrolled was in engineering, manufacturing and construction programs – 29.6 % or 767 students.
While the largest share of higher education students is female, science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) fields are more often chosen by men. In 2024, a total of 13 481 students acquired a degree or qualification in a Latvian higher education institution, of which 66.0 % were women graduates. However, only a little over a third of STEM field graduates were women (34.7 %).
At the beginning of 2024, the number of doctorate holders was similar among both genders – 4 167 women and 3 745 men. The predominance of women is observed in the number of doctorate holders up to the age of 70, but with the increase of age there are more men doctorate holders. This suggests that in the future we can potentially expect a change in the gender ratio and greater inequality – a shortage of male doctorate holders.
Teachers
In 2023 share of female teachers in general and professional educational institutions (except preschools) in Latvia is the highest among EU member states – 86.1 % of teachers are women. In all general and professional educational institutions in the EU member states the number of female teachers is larger than the number of male teachers – the average share of female teachers in the EU is 72.9 %. The largest share of female teachers in Latvia is in age group 45–59 years, i.e., 9 out of 10 teachers are women.
Out of 11.5 thousand preschool teachers in Latvia 2024/2025 school year, there are only 153 male teachers, and 65.4 % of them are sports teachers.
During the past 14 years, the high share of female teachers has not changed – in 2010 88.1 % of teachers were women, but in 2024 – 86.9 %.
Academic staff
In 2024, 55.1 % of the academic staff were female and 44.9 % were men. The highest representation of women was among lecturers (64.8 % of women and 35.2 % of men, respectively), while men were more likely to be professors (52.3 % and 47.7 %, respectively). Among associate professors, 54.0 % were female and 46.0 % were male. Among assistant professors, 56.7 % were female and 43.3 % were male. 50.3 % of leading researchers were male and 49.7 % - female. In terms of age groups, the highest prevalence of women in academic staff is observed in the 45–49 age group (63.5 %), but in the 25–29 age group there are more men (60.3 %).
Early school leavers
The share of early school leavers (aged 18–24) in 2024 increased by 0.2 percentage points reaching 7.9 %. However, there are some gender differences in the shares of early school leavers, as men discontinue studies after basic education more frequently than women – 9.6 % of men and 6.1 % of women aged 18–24 had basic education or lower and were not participating in education anymore.
Adult participation in learning
In 2024, 11.0 % of the population of Latvia aged 25–64 had participated in education or training during the past four weeks. The share of such persons among women was 5.1 percentage points higher – 13.5 % of women and 8.4 % of men.
Science
In terms of female share among researchers (scientists, professionals, managers and administrators) Latvia takes the top rankings among the EU countries. In 2023, females accounted for almost half (48.8 %) of Latvian researchers.
Analysis of the researcher number by sector shows that in 2023 the largest share of males was employed in business enterprise sector (65.3 %), while that of females in government and higher education sectors (54.7 % and 52.5 %, respectively).
In 2023, medical and health sciences was the field of science with the largest share of female researchers (65.8 %), followed by humanities and art sciences (62.6 %), agricultural and veterinary science (62.5 %), and social sciences (61.1 %). The largest share of male researchers was working in the field of engineering and technology (68.9 %) as well as natural sciences (52.9 %).
Gender Equality Index – education
Latvian Gender Equality Index1 calculated by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) in the domain Knowledge, which measures gender inequalities in educational attainment, participation in education and training over the life course and gender segregation, is assessed with 52.1 points, which is notably less than the EU average (64.2). The low rating is related to both higher share of females among higher education institution graduates and gender gap in various fields of education (females more commonly choose humanities, while males science and technical fields). According to EIGE assessment, Latvia has consistently taken the last place among the EU countries in the domain Knowledge since 2015, thus, it is possible to conclude that Latvia should continue serious development in the field of education.
Methodological explanations:
1The index ratings vary between 1 and 100, where 1 stands for absolute gender inequality and 100 for full gender equality.
Data source
Official statistics portal:
NBA060 Population aged 15–74 by educational attainment and sex
NBA060 Higher education graduates (ISCED 5, 6, 7, 8) by sex
IGA040 Female graduates having ISCED 5 or ISCED 6 in science and technologies (natural sciences, mathematics, IT, engineering, manufacturing, construction)
IGP050 Academic staff at main job in higher education institutions and colleges by sex and age groups
IPA020 Vocational school entrants, enrolments and graduates by sex and field of education
IZI040 Early school leavers (aged 18–24) in urban and rural areas by sex
IZI060 Share of adult education participants by sex
ZPR050 Researchers (scientists, professionals, managers and administrators) working full-time and part-time by age