Gender pay gap narrower in rural areas in EU and Cyprus

The EU gender gap for median equivalised net income was close to 5% during the last decade, according to data released by Eurostat ahead of International Women’s Day on Wednesday.

Cyprus is sixth when it comes to the overall gender gap, both when it comes to cities as well as rural areas, with both percentages being above 6%. However, the difference between urban and rural areas is relatively small, with urban areas being slightly higher.

In the EU in 2021, in absolute terms, the median value for males was €18,774, almost €800 higher than that of females (€17,972).

Considering the differences in the degree of urbanisation, the EU gender gap for net income was narrower for people living in rural areas than for those living in cities: 4.0% against 4.8%.

At the national level, gender income gaps were higher in cities than rural areas in 13 member states, with Lithuania and Malta presenting the highest differences in terms of the degree of urbanisation: 8.5 and 7.3 percentage points, respectively.

Among the 14 countries where income gaps were higher in rural areas than cities, Austria (5.3 pp) and Italy (4.2 pp) presented the largest differences between the income gender gaps observed in urban and rural areas. Interestingly, in Austrian cities and Maltese rural contexts, the income gap was in favour of females: -1.7% and -4.4%, respectively.

The equivalised disposable income is the total income of a household, after tax and other deductions, that is available for spending or saving, divided by the number of household members converted into equalised adults; household members are equalised or made equivalent by weighting each according to their age. The gender gap is defined as the difference between male and female incomes as a percentage of male incomes.