Side by Side: How Many Seats Do Women Hold?
Latvia’s prime minister sits down with his coalition partners today, more than three weeks after the election, so it is worth counting who fills the chambers that coalitions are built from.
In Riga, Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs meets the National Alliance at 1 pm today and New Unity at 3 pm, with polling day more than three weeks behind them. In the outgoing Saeima, 37 of the 100 members were women, 40th in the world in the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s ranking of 1 August 2026. One snapshot, one measure: the share of seats held by women in each lower or single chamber, against a world average of 27.2 per cent.
Mexico
50.4 per cent, 252 of 500 seats, sixth in the world. Mexico reached parity and kept going for two more seats. It is the one chamber here where the men are the minority.
Australia
46.0 per cent, 69 of 150, 12th. Canberra is six women short of half. By the standards of the table, it is waiting at the station with its ticket already stamped.
United Kingdom
41.0 per cent, 266 of 649 filled seats, 26th. The Commons sits third in this comparison, behind only Mexico and Australia among the six, and still has 117 more men than women on its benches.
United States
28.8 per cent, 124 of the 431 seats filled when the IPU counted, 84th, 1.6 points above the world average. The House is short of parity by a wide margin. Its vacancies, at least, were perfectly balanced.
Japan
14.6 per cent, 68 of 465, 147th. The lower house seats nearly six men for each woman. Tokyo runs its trains to the minute and has yet to publish this timetable.
India
13.8 per cent, 75 of 542, 151st and last among the countries here. The largest electorate in the world returns a chamber in which about six members in every seven are men.
Verdict
Mexico overshot, Australia is nearly there, London has climbed further than its reputation and Washington hovers at the world average. Tokyo and New Delhi bring up the rear, with over three quarters of their seats still empty of women. Every chamber in the table was elected, and none of them yet looks like the electorate that chose it. Latvia, still forming its government, would place behind only Mexico, Australia and Britain in this table, which is the best position in which to be told it could do better.