Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians network releases new 2024 data on Women in Parliaments

For the first time, the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) network has released detailed data on the numbers of Women Parliamentarians in Legislatures across the Commonwealth.

The importance of collecting this data for the CWP network is crucial as it shows how Commonwealth Parliaments are progressing in terms of representation, equality and equal rights, policymaking, role models, accountability and global development. Collecting data on the number of women in Parliaments serves as a barometer for measuring societal progress toward gender equality and ensuring that women have a meaningful voice in shaping policies that affect their lives.

In 2024, the CWP data shows that the total number of Women Parliamentarians (as at April 2024) in Commonwealth Parliaments is 4,205 with the average percentage of women in Parliaments at 25.9% across the Commonwealth. The CWP data takes account of both Houses in bi-cameral Parliaments and also includes both national and sub-national Parliaments.

The CWP data includes rankings for Women in Parliament in the nine CPA Regions and the top ten Legislatures for the number of Women in Parliaments in both national Parliaments and across all Legislatures within the CPA’s membership. The data also includes a list of jurisdictions with no Women Parliamentarians.

• The top three national Parliaments in 2024 for women’s representation are Rwanda (48.0% average for women Members across both Houses), Australia Federal (46.0%) and New Zealand (45.5% unicameral).
• The top three Parliaments from the CPA’s membership in 2024 are Limpopo (55.1% unicameral), Australian Capital Territory (52.0%) and Tasmania (51.4%).

The CPA Secretary-General, Stephen Twigg said:

“The CWP data on the numbers of women in Commonwealth Parliaments for 2024 shows that we are seeing some progress but that we are far from achieving the goal of gender equality in our Legislatures. More women than ever hold political decision-making posts worldwide, but we need to progress further to achieve women's full and equal participation in all Parliaments.

Advances have been made in the Commonwealth with examples from the Parliaments of Sierra Leone and India where they have both passed recent legislation to increase their numbers of women Members. In the case of Sierra Leone, this has already resulted in an increase in women’s representation. There has also been good progress in the representation of women in the sub-national Legislatures in Australia and South Africa where they have a high number of women MPs.”

To access the CWP data on the numbers of Women in Parliaments across the Commonwealth please click here.

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Please note: The CWP data is likely to change by the end of 2024 due to a higher-than-average number of elections due to take place in Commonwealth Parliaments this year. Further data in subsequent years will also provide a comparative analysis in the future. We also acknowledge the IPU data for national Parliaments which is included as part of this analysis.

The Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) was founded in 1989 to increase the number of female elected representatives in 180 Parliaments and Legislatures across the Commonwealth and to ensure that women’s issues are brought to the fore in parliamentary debate and legislation. The network campaigns for gender equality in all spheres. For media enquiries, please contact communications@cpahq.org.