Engineering, manufacturing, and construction is clearly dominated by men at the EU level

Almost 5 million tertiary education students graduated in the European Union (EU) in 2014: 58% were women and 42% men.

Male dominated education fields are Engineering, manufacturing and construction (where men account for 73% of the graduates in this field) and Science, mathematics and computing (58%). On the other hand, four out of five graduates in Education are women (80%). Another field where women are largely overrepresented is Health and welfare, with 75% female graduates.captura

One in three graduates studied social sciences, business or law

The largest share of graduates in all Member States studied Social science, business and law. In Bulgaria, this field was followed by nearly half of all graduates (49%). It accounted for a large share also in Luxembourg (46%), Cyprus (44%) and Lithuania (43%).

One in five graduates in Romania, Austria, Finland (all 21%) and Germany (20%) received their diplomas in Engineering, manufacturing and construction.

The share of graduates in Health and welfare was particularly high in Belgium (25%), where one in four graduates was in this field, and exceeded 20% also in in Sweden (23%), Denmark (21%) and Finland (20%).

Humanities and arts were popular in the United Kingdom and Italy (both 16%). In the United Kingdom, 17% graduated in Science, mathematics and computing. This field had a relatively large share also in Malta (15%) and Germany (14%). By far the largest share of Education graduates was in Luxembourg (26%).

80% of Education graduates are women

In all Member States, there were more women among tertiary education graduates than men (58% of graduates were women at EU level). The share of female graduates was particularly high in Estonia and Poland (both 66%). The most balanced gender distribution was observed in Germany (51%) and Ireland (52%).

Engineering, manufacturing, and construction is clearly dominated by men at the EU level (73% of the graduates in this field are men) and in all the Member States. The share of male graduates in this field ranged from 61% in Poland to 85% in Ireland. Science, mathematics and computing is another male field in most Member States – apart from Romania (41% of the graduates in this field are men), Portugal (43%), Cyprus (46%), Italy (47%) and Bulgaria (50%). The highest share of male graduates in Science, mathematics and computing was in Netherlands (73%), well above the EU level (58%).

Women are overrepresented in Education in all the Member States – their share in this field in the EU was 80% and ranged from 62% in Luxembourg to 97% in Romania. Also in Health and welfare, female graduates dominated both on the EU level (75%) and in all the Member States, with the highest share in Estonia (90%) and the lowest in Cyprus (65%).

These data are issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, and show only a small selection of the wide range of data on education available at Eurostat.

For more information

Eurostat website section dedicated to education and training.

Eurostat database on education and training.

 

Source: EUROSTAT