Rwanda leads the world.
18 African parliaments
are below 20% women.
A world record can hide a continent's range. In the IPU's 1 October snapshot, women hold 51 of Rwanda's 80 lower-house seats. In Nigeria, they hold 15 of 356. Explore all 54 African countries below.
Rwanda
51 women / 80 filled seats
The highest share in the IPU's worldwide ranking.
One shape = one member. The chamber grows when you switch countries; the percentage still uses each chamber's own size.
of the 9,889 filled seats across the 49 African lower or single chambers with data are held by women: 2,540 members. Five countries have no available lower-house rate.
A continent, not a single story.
Each tile is one country. Bar length shows women's share on a common 0% to 100% scale. Select a country to count its seats and compare its chambers.
Why look now?
The IPU reported on 15 October that women made up a record 39.4% of parliamentarians at its assembly in Arusha, Tanzania, held on 5 to 9 October. The national chamber data show how widely representation still varies at home.
Seven African lower or single chambers reach 40%; only Rwanda reaches 50%. A share of seats measures representation, not democratic quality or how much influence members wield.
Open the complete country and chamber register
All 54 countries, including missing data. These records stay complete when you filter the tiles above.
| Country | Region | Lower women | Lower filled | Lower % | Upper women | Upper filled | Upper % | Lower status |
|---|
Sources and method
- IPU Parline: monthly ranking, 1 October 2026 (official API). Country, chamber, election date, filled seats and women members. Retrieved 18 October 2026. Ranking website.
- IPU: Global lawmakers find common ground at the 153rd IPU Assembly, 15 October 2026. Source for the Arusha participation figure.
Coverage: the 54 African countries in the IPU data, including Egypt, which the source groups under Middle East. North Africa here includes Egypt. Rankings and headline counts use lower or single chambers. The pooled share divides the sum of women members by the sum of filled seats in the 49 chambers with both counts; it is not the average of country percentages. Source percentages are rounded to one decimal. Election dates are the source's most recent recorded election or renewal, not the snapshot date.
Unavailable lower-house rates: Zambia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau and Sudan. Missing is never treated as zero. A blank upper rate may mean no upper chamber or no reported data; the detail view distinguishes available counts and source suspension flags. South Africa's upper-house count covers 54 permanent members and excludes 36 rotating delegates. The source may revise historical snapshots as national parliaments report updates.
Data: Inter-Parliamentary Union, adapted for geographic grouping and visualization. Data and adapted data are licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. CSV includes snapshot, source, license and chamber notes.