In 2025, there were 20.2 million scientists and engineers in the EU, of whom 8.2 million, or 41%, were women.
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: Nordrhein-Westfalen (281 400; share 35%) and Bayern (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%).
Source dataset: hrst_st_rsex
Would you like to know more about research and development in EU regions?
You can explore the research and development section in the Eurostat regional yearbook – 2026 edition and in the interactive publication Regions in Europe.
