Women now make up the majority of the European Union’s science and technology workforce, according to new data from Eurostat. In 2025, more than 81.6 million people were employed in science and technology across the EU, with women accounting for 52.5% of the total. Over the past decade, the number of women working in the sector has increased by almost 28%, adding more than 9 million professionals.

Science and technology occupations are those, in which the main tasks require a high level of professional knowledge or technical knowledge and experience in 1 or more fields of physical and life sciences, or social sciences and humanities. 

Across the EU regions at level 1 of the Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS 1), the highest shares of women employed in science and technology in 2025 were observed in Latvia, with 62.4% (a single region at this level of detail), followed by the Hungarian region of Great Plain and North, with 61.1%, and Estonia (also a single region at this level), with 60.5%. 

At the other end of the scale, the lowest shares were recorded in the French region of Corsica (42.7%), Malta (46.0%) and the Centre region in Italy (47.2%). 

Women underrepresented as scientists and engineers

Scientists and engineers are an important subgroup of all people employed in science and technology in the EU, representing almost a quarter (24.8%). 

Germany employed the largest share across the EU countries, with 4.2 million scientists and engineers.

Although women made up more than half of the people employed in science and technology, they remained underrepresented among scientists and engineers, accounting for 40.8% of their total in 2025. This share grew only 0.5 percentage points over the last 10 years, while the absolute number of women working as scientists and engineers increased by 54.4% in that period, from 5.3 million in 2015 to 8.2 million in 2025.

29.05.2026.