Issue no.: 5 | September 2009

Facts and figures

• Rwanda has the highest number of women parliamentarians worldwide since the election in September 2008 (56 percent of seats).
• 95 countries worldwide apply some form of quotas. Out of the 22 countries that boast 30 percent or more women in national assemblies, 18 of them applied quotas in some form.
• Countries with Proportional Representation electoral systems and with quotas can expect to reach the 40 percent threshold on average by 2026.
• As a regional average, women hold between 7.7 to 28.1 percent of ministerial posts, while individual countries range from 0 to 58 percent.
• The number representing the average percentage of women parliamentarians in South Asia by mid-year 2008 is 15 percent (ranging from 3 to 34 percent within the region)