Portugal has made the most progress of all EU countries, rising by 3.9 points, followed by Estonia with 3.1 points, according to the index published on the website of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE). The results of the index are obtained by looking at the gaps between women and men in six key areas: work, money, knowledge, time, power and health.

“We are moving in the right direction, but we are still far from the finish line. Our index, which measures gender equality in the EU, shows that almost half the countries in the EU scored fewer than 60 points. With the new European Parliament and European Commission and the overhaul of the EU priorities for the next strategic framework, it is vitally important that we make progress in gender equality,” warned EIGE director Virginija Langbakk.

According to the latest index, which runs from 1 to 100 (1 means complete inequality, 100 means complete equality), Slovenia obtained 68.3 points. Sweden came top with 83.6 points, followed by Denmark with 77.5 points and France with 74.6 points. At the bottom of the table are Slovakia with 54.1 points, Hungary with 51.9 points and Greece with 51.2 points. The EU average is 67.4 points.