Could it be that across Europe, for every 10 AI professionals, only 2 are women? 

The conversation around the gender gap in the workforce is not new across various sectors. 

And here is what the data shows about EU countries by the share of female AI professionals. 

TL;DR

• Women comprise only 22% of AI talent globally, with even lower representation at senior levels.
• Europe has closed 75% of its gender gap, with Sweden and Germany among the top five European economies in doing so.

The data for this visualisation comes from Interface’s study on Ravelio Labs datasets. 

Revelio Labs predicts gender based on first names using a model trained on  Social Security Administration data. 

If a name has a probability above 50% of being female, the individual is counted as female in this analysis. Individuals without a predicted gender are omitted from this analysis. 

It is important to acknowledge that predicting gender from names is not always accurate, and readers should keep this limitation in mind.

Share of Female AI Professionals in EU Countries

As you can see, across Europe, the percentage of women working in AI varies widely, and the numbers alone don’t tell the full story. 

France, Germany, and the Netherlands have the highest total number of female AI workers, but that doesn’t mean their workforces are balanced. 

In fact, Germany has one of the largest female AI populations yet still ranks near the bottom, with women making up only about 20% of its AI talent. 

France does slightly better, with one in four AI professionals being female.

Lativa Leads EU in AI Talents Gender Balance

Smaller countries, however, are outperforming the giants in terms of gender balance. 

Latvia and Finland both have more than 40% women in their AI workforce, putting them among Europe’s most balanced AI markets. 

Latvia’s success mirrors the broader pattern in Eastern Europe, where women have historically participated more in Science, Tech, Engineering, Arts, and Maths (STEM) fields. 

This stems partly from the Soviet-era legacy that encouraged women to work in science and engineering. 

Today, countries like Latvia, Lithuania, and Bulgaria still show some of the highest shares of women in scientific roles.

Modern policies also support Latvia’s progress. 

It’s one of the few EU countries where women outnumber men in science and engineering, thanks in part to national equality plans designed to challenge gender stereotypes and promote equal opportunities. 

These policies help explain why nearly half of Latvia’s AI workforce is female, a rare achievement globally.

Finland also ranks at the top for gender balance in AI, reflecting its overall leadership on gender equality. According to the 2024 Global Gender Gap Index, Finland is the second most gender-equal country in the world.

The Broader Perspective

Generally, Western Europe has more women in AI by volume, but Eastern and Nordic countries are far ahead in terms of balance and fairness. 

Stronger equality policies, cultural expectations, and historical STEM participation explain why countries like Latvia and Finland lead, while larger nations like Germany still struggle despite their size.

What are Experts Saying? 

Social Media and PR Manager at Fasthosts, Chelsea Hopkins, argues that it’s important to showcase the already successful voices of women in STEM. 

“Despite the gender disparity in AI,” says Hopkins, “women have already been crucial in the development of the AI era. 

“However, when AI is scanning the internet in real-time for data, women’s voices are not platformed as easily, as they are marginalised in conversations in the STEM sphere”

For a more solution-oriented approach, Senior Consultant, Legal Tech at Jameson Legal, Sophie Best, explains that “Gaining fluency in these tools and understanding how they integrate into real-world systems is a game-changer. 

“I’ve worked with many clients who are now expected to understand AI not just for efficiency, but to mitigate risk and protect reputations.”

An Uncharted Territory…

There’s still no publicly available dataset ranking all EU (or EU-27) countries by “% female AI professionals.” 

Instead, studies tend to sample “AI-talent pools” or “tier-2 technical talent,” or broader ICT or STEM workforce. 

For example, the Interface report focuses on 1.6 million AI professionals worldwide.

According to a 2023/2024 study by OECD, across member countries (including many EU countries), the share of women in the AI workforce varies from about 46% in the most gender-balanced to as low as 30% in others.

Also, AI professionals, AI talent,  or tier-2 technical talent are defined differently across studies.

Some include data science, machine learning, engineering, and others include broader ICT or ICT-adjacent roles. 

So the gender gap in the global AI workforce remains an uncharted territory for discussion for now. 

ELI5: Gender Gap in AI Talents

A global review of 1.6 million AI professionals found that only 22% are women, and the imbalance worsens at senior levels, where women make up less than 14% of executives.

In Europe, countries like Germany (20.3% women in AI) and Sweden (22.4%), despite doing well on gender equality in general, have some of the lowest female representation in AI. 

This lack of female representation is a big deal because when the people building AI systems are overwhelmingly male, the risk of bias in AI tools increases, and innovation suffers.

Sources: 

Interface | Revelio Labs | OECD | We Forum 

*Experts’ quotes were first reported on Diginomica