10 Nov 2026
Eurostat: Women made up 41% of EU scientists & engineers in 2025
According to Eurostat, the European Union's statistics office, there were 20.2 million scientists and engineers in the EU in 2025, of whom 8.2 million, or 41%, were women, based on data from the Eurostat Regional Yearbook's 2026 edition.
The French capital region of Île-de-France had 336,300 female scientists and engineers, the highest number among EU regions classified at level 1 of the nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS 1). In Île-de-France, the share of women among scientists and engineers was 38%. A group of regions with similar figures for female scientists and engineers followed: Northrhine-Westfalia (281,400; share 35%) and Bavaria (271,100; 35%) in Germany, Este (279 400; 46%) in Spain, West-Nederland (271 600; 40%) in the Netherlands, and Continente (265 100; 46%) in Portugal.
There were 10 regions where women accounted for more than half of all scientists and engineers in 2025. Most of these were located in southern EU countries: 4 regions from Spain, 2 from Portugal and 1 region from Greece. The remaining 3 were Makroregion centralny in Poland, the northernmost region of Sweden and the French outermost regions. Most regions in this group had a relatively small total number of scientists and engineers, with the highest count in Noreste (Spain), which had 102 700 female scientists and engineers (51%).
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