The EU ICT sector continues to face a gender gap: Cyprus is among the leaders in specialists’ education levels

According to Eurostat, the information and communication technology (ICT) sector in the European Union continues to show a pronounced gender imbalance, with men still dominating the workforce in the industry. In 2025, 3.4 million people worked in the EU ICT sector, 5.1% more than a year earlier. At the same time, men accounted for 83.4% of workers, while women’s share remained at 16.6%.

Despite the gradual increase in the number of women in the sector — from 0.4 million in 2015 to 0.6 million in 2025 — their share over the decade has changed very little, indicating the persistence of the gender gap in the high-tech sector. The highest share of men among ICT specialists was recorded in the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia, where it exceeds 88–92%.

Against this backdrop, Cyprus shows a gender distribution similar to the EU-wide trend: men account for 85.1% of those employed in ICT, while women make up 14.9%. However, the country stands out for another indicator — the level of education among specialists. In Cyprus, 96.4% of ICT workers have higher education, placing the country among the EU leaders on this measure. A higher figure was recorded only in a few countries, including Denmark and France.

Across the European Union as a whole, 74.8% of ICT workers have higher education, while the remaining 25.2% have secondary vocational education. The highest level of qualifications was recorded in Denmark, France, Ireland, Bulgaria and Croatia, where the share of specialists with higher education exceeds 90%.

At the same time, in some countries such as Italy and Portugal, a significant share of ICT workers does not have higher education, highlighting differences in workforce training levels across the EU.

Overall, Eurostat data point to a mixed picture: on the one hand, Europe’s ICT sector is growing rapidly; on the other, it continues to show a persistent gender gap. At the same time, Cyprus stands out for the high educational attainment of its specialists, remaining one of the EU leaders in the quality of human capital in the technology sector.