Gender Statistics Database

The Database acts as a knowledge hub for gender statistics. It is composed of over 2000 indicators on key gender equality topics across all areas of life in Europe. Concretely, it provides detailed information on:

• Progress towards gender equality under several monitoring frameworks (EU policies and strategies, Gender Equality Index and Beijing platform for action)
• A broad range of gender-sensitive topics (Thematic areas)
• Gender equality in decision-making (women and men in decision-making) and
• Violence against women (Gender-Based Violence).

EU policies and strategies

• European Pillar of Social Rights
• Barcelona Strategy

Thematic areas

• Work andLabour market
• Research, science, digital society
• Education, training and skills
• Demography and migration
• Fertility and reproductive rights
• Health and mortality
• Living conditions
• Time use
• Public opinion

Beijing Platform for action

• Women and poverty
• Education and training of women
• Women and health
• Violence against women
• Women and armed conflict
• Women and the economy
• Women in power and decision-making
• Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women
• Human rights of women
• Women and the media
• Women and the environment
• The Girl Child

Gender Equality Index

• Gender equality index scores and data for underlying indicators

Women and men in decision-making

• Politics
• Publicadministration
• Judiciary
• Business and finance
• Social partners and NGOs
• Environment and climate change
• Media
• Education, science and research
• Sports
• Transport
• Covid-19

Gender-based violence

• Physical violence
• Sexual violence
• Psychological violence
• Economic violence
• Intimate partner violence
• Female genital mutilation
• Trafficking
• Attitudes and perceptions
• Support services
• Statistical capacity and availability of data
• Costs of Violence

Gender mainstreaming

• Contextual indicators
• Gender equality in policies and decision making

For more information and to learn more about gender statistics and gender-sensitive indicators, see the following publication: 

• Quality Considerations for EIGE’s Gender Statistics Database 

According to the United Nations manual, gender statistics are ‘statistics that adequately reflect differences and inequalities in the situation of women and men in all areas of life’. Accurate sex-disaggregated and gender-sensitive data helps track the impact of policies and reveals where more can be done to close gender gaps. This definition of gender statistics is in line with the BPfA definition adopted at the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, China, 1995), which asked nations to ‘ensure that statistics related to individuals are collected, compiled, analysed and presented by sex and age and reflect problems, issues and questions related to women and men in society’. This data can be used to compare women and men on key socio-economic indicators, e.g. educational attainment, labour market participation, health outcomes or access to decision- making positions.

Gender indicators allow for the comparison of statistical figures across countries, time periods, and several disaggregation levels including demographic variables.

The Database primarily aims to gather statistics that are:

• sex-disaggregated and/or directly reflect gender issues (such as childcare spending and provision)
• based on concepts and definitions that adequately reflect gender diversity
• collected using methods that account for social and cultural factors that may induce gender biases in the data.

The data sources of the Gender Statistics Database can be divided into four main groups:

• Data collected directly by EIGE from relevant EU and national sources:
  • Women and men in decision-making
  • Gender-based violence
  • Gender-mainstreaming
• Indicators to monitor progress towards the achievement of gender equality, computed by EIGE from a range of sources:
  • Gender Equality Index
  • Beijing Platform for Action.
• Indicators collected from key EU-level data sources. The main EU data sources are listed in the table below. The Database also contains indicators computed from other EU-level data.

• Data Source	Data collection
  Eurostat	Administrative data on a range of themes
  	EU Labour force survey (EU-LFS)
  	European Statistics of Income and Living Condition (EU-SILC)
  	Structure of earnings survey (SES)
  	Community statistics on information society survey (CSIS)
  	European health interview survey (EHIS)
  	Adult education survey (AES)
  	Eurostat-UNODC data collection on crime and criminal justice
  Eurofound	European working conditions survey (EWCS)
  	European quality of life survey (EQLS)
  	Living, working and Covid-19 survey
  EU Commission	EU Labour Market Policies Database (LMP)
  	She figures
  	Data collection on trafficking in human beings in the EU
  EU Fundamental Rights Agency	Survey on gender-based violence against women
  Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE)	WAVE reports

• Data on surveys conducted by EIGE on an ad-hoc basis to inform on topics with policy relevance. 

Note that within official sources, Eurostat data are prioritised over data from other official sources in order to ensure international comparability of data.  

The Database is updated on a rolling basis as soon as new data becomes available. See the two tables below for an overview of release dates.

The timely update of the Database guarantees access to the latest available data and metadata and highlights data gaps.

Overview of release dates for the indicators on women and men in decision-making

EIGE has adopted the quality assessment and assurance framework of Eurostat’s European Statistical System (ESS) to evaluate data quality. Thus data quality is assessed against the quality evaluation principles outlined in the European Statistics Code of Practice. These can be divided into three broad blocks according to their focus:

• institutional environment
• statistical processes
• statistical output. 

The Database often presents data collected by well-established EU data providers that satisfy the first two blocks, which means that the ‘statistical output’ block is the most important one for ongoing Database updates and maintenance. The principles to evaluate the quality of statistical outputs consist of data relevance, accuracy and reliability, timeliness and punctuality, coherence and comparability, and accessibility and clarity.

New data can be included in the Database only when it complies with these principles.

You can search the Database in four main ways:

1. The Database tree 

The Database tree is on the main page of the Database and includes seven main entry points:

• One entry point that focuses on monitoring the achievement of EU policies and strategies
• A general entry point containing a large number of indicators on a broad range of issues: ‘Thematic areas’
• One entry point focusing on EIGE’s Gender Equality Index
• One entry point containing the data on women and men in decision-making
• One entry point containing the data on gender-based violence.
• One entry point on gender mainstreaming

The entry points are divided into themes and sub-themes that can be browsed by clicking on the relevant entry point. For example, to search data on women and men at risk of poverty, click on the entry point ‘Thematic areas’ to view a list of its themes. Then click on the theme ‘Living conditions’, then ‘At risk of poverty’ and select its sub-theme ‘General indicators’. Within this sub-theme, there are several ‘at-risk-of-poverty rate’ indicators.  

2. The basic search function

On the Database homepage, the search box appears below the heading ‘Browse Gender Statistics’. In this search box you can type the topic you want to find data on, or a phrase related to it. This will show all themes, sub-themes and indicators related to the search term.

3. The advanced search function

To search data, click on the button in the right top corner of the Database homepage. The text search function allows you to specify a search phrase (i.e. people at risk) which returns a list of indicators containing the exact or similar phrase matches. Use quotes to search for exact phrase match (e.g. “people at risk”). It is also possible to search by drop-down lists of keywords, source organisations, statistical activities and data type.

Advanced search

4. Global Search

In addition to the three existing methods, the general website search now features a dedicated box for indicator searches, offering a fourth and distinct approach to finding the specific indicators required within the platform. When utilising the general website search function, a specialized box specifically designed for indicator-related queries emerges, providing users with a focused and streamlined approach to locating the desired indicators within the platform.

Countries and years, and other relevant data dimensions (such as gender or age group) can be chosen by changing the data filter settings. This can be done in three quick steps:

• Select the filter(s) that you want to change, either from a drop-down list of possible categories (i.e. time period, countries, units or age groups) or by ticking or un-ticking relevant tick-boxes (i.e. gender).
• Click on the apply button at the bottom of the filter setting box.

This changes the way the indicator is displayed, to show only data for the new filter settings.

By default, the Database presents data in a bar chart, which shows data values for a range of countries in the same year. To display data over multiple years for one or more countries, you can use a line chart:

1. Click on the field called ‘Horizontal Bar Chart’ on the top of data display.
2. Select the countries and years you want to display in the line chart (see question above for more detail on how to do this).

When viewing the data for the indicator through the ‘Data Table’ option, it is possible to add or delete dimensions to said table. The available dimensions will appear at the top of the table, and they can be added by clicking on the dimension purple icon and dragging it to the place of the table of choice (rows or columns).

To delete the added dimensions once they have been incorporated into the table, click on the ‘x’ that appears next to the name of the dimension on the table.

It is possible to download data for some of the indicators included in the Database. 

To be able to download data for a specific indicator, click on the ‘Metadata’ sub-section of the indicator page layout. If the download option is enabled for this indicator (only for WMID entry point), a link will appear under the subheading ‘Pre-defined tables for download’.

It is also possible to download the Data Table view for some indicators. To do this, click on the ‘Data Table’ section of the indicator where the table with the data will appear. The table can be personalised (dimensions can be added or deleted) and this edited table can be downloaded by clicking on the ‘Export’ blue button that will appear on the top right, above the table.

The data on women and men decision-making can be accessed under the Database entry point ‘Women and men in decision-making’. The data covers key decision-making positions in the following areas:

• Politics 
• Public administration 
• Judiciary data 
• Business and finance 
• Social partners and NGOs covers 
• Environment and climate change 
• Media 
• Education, science and research
• Sports
• Transport
• COVID-19

Each indicator under the women and men in decision-making entry point is accompanied by comprehensive reference metadata, which follows the Eurostat SMDX Metadata Structure (ESMS). The metadata contains:

• Detailed information related to data collection methodology, including geographic coverage, positions covered and their definitions, data release calendar, data quality issues, and data sources and collection methods.
• Where relevant, detailed mapping tables (in pdf) that summarise positions and/or organisations covered by the indicator is made available.

Each indicator is also accompanied by a summary dataset description, which highlights key information from the detailed metadata.

This information can be accessed by selecting the metadata box located at the top of the data display (see metadata for central banks) and scrolling down through the page. 

Detailed information by indicator is also available in the full data collection methodology for the women and men in decision-making data

Yes, this is possible by selecting the corresponding unit of measurement (number of persons – headcount) in the data filter settings. This can be done in three quick steps:

1. Launch the indicator you would like to view e.g., Central banks: governors, deputy/vice-governors, and members.
2. From the filter menu located at the top of the data display, click the filter for “Unit of measurement”, and select the ‘Number of persons (headcount)’ unit from the drop-down list.
3. Click the ”Apply” button at the right hand side of the filter setting box. 

This changes the data display so that it shows data in absolute numbers (headcount) rather than percentages.

Yes, this is possible by selecting desired position in the filter settings, following a similar approach to the question on unit of measurement above. This can be done:

1. Launch the indicator you would like to view e.g., Central banks: governors, deputy/vice-governors, and members.
2. From the filter menu located at the top of the data display, click the filter for “Position”, and select the desired position from the drop-down list.
3. Click on the "Apply” button at the right hand side of the filter setting box. 

EIGE collects and disseminates data on gender-based violence from various sources in the Gender Statistics Database. Broadly, data collected in those sources can be grouped in two types, survey data and national administrative data.

Important sources of survey data in EIGE’s Gender Statistics Database are the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) survey on violence against women, Eurobarometer special surveys that include questions on gender-based violence, and Eurofound’s European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS).

National administrative data in EIGE’s Gender Statistics Database is obtained from various national sources, such as the police and judiciary data. These data register offences, prosecutions, numbers of perpetrators and number of victims, amongst others. As definitions of crimes and data collection methodologies differ between Member States, these data are not comparable.

EIGE’s Gender Statistics Database also displays national administrative data compiled by Eurostat on trafficking in human beings, data from the joined Eurostat - UNODC project, and data from the Women Against Violence (WAVE) reports on women’s support services in Europe.

Information about gender-based violence includes a wide range of topics:

• Incidence of different forms of violence (physical, sexual, psychological, and economic). This can include national administrative data (such as data on the number of victims of a particular form of violence recorded by the police) and survey data (for example, asking respondents whether they have been a victim of a particular type of violence in their lifetime).
• Data on specific offences, such as Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). This data has been collected from national administrative sources and surveys and been compiled by EIGE through its studies on violence against women. In 2024, the data on intimate partner violence will be updated to include findings from EIGE’s 2023-2024 data collection exercise on intimate partner violence and domestic violence.
• Statistics on trafficking in human beings, such as information on the victims, the traffickers, prosecutions and convictions, collected by the European Commission.
• Data on the estimated annual costs of gender-based and intimate partner violence in the EU, based on compiled administrative data.
• Perceptions of gender-based violence which are predominantly informed by survey data sources, asking respondents their opinion and perceptions of violence as a social issue.
• Availability, awareness, use and quality of services for victims of gender-based violence.

Some topics include many indicators, (e.g. on the incidents of physical and sexual violence) as this data is more systematically collected by national institutions such as the police and is readily available. Other topics, such as economic and psychological violence are less extensively covered in the Database as national data is more limited in these areas.

A new concept to restructure this entry point of the Database is under development. This change will help to improve its user friendliness, increase the overall visibility of data collected by EIGE, and to align the structure of the entry point with the new EU Directive on Combating violence against women and domestic violence.

The data included under gender-based violence in the Gender Statistics Database comes from different sources. Survey data comes from different surveys, and national administrative data comes from different national institutions (e.g., national statistical offices, police and judiciary). While these sources may all collect data on the same topic, they use different methodologies, and this affects the comparability of results.

For example, in the case of femicide, the data comes from the joint Eurostat-UNODC data on intentional homicide which follows different methodologies and definitions than the national sources. Similarly, different surveys may formulate the questions differently or have different target populations, which could lead to different estimates.