Albania has lowest share of female judges in the Balkans

Women make up the majority of judges in Albania, but the country still has the lowest share of female judges in the Balkan region.

New data from the European statistics agency, Eurostat, shows that women make up 55 percent of judges in Albania, while men make up 45 percent.

This puts Albania near the bottom of the European table. It ranks just ahead of a few countries, including Germany, Ireland, and Turkey.

In the Western Balkans, Albania has the lowest rate of female judges. Serbia leads the region, with women holding 73 percent of judge jobs, followed by Bosnia and Montenegro.

However, these numbers mean the gender balance in Albanian courts is actually more equal than in most of Europe, where women hold a much larger majority.

Across Europe, Slovenia has the highest rate, with women making up over 81 percent of judges. Ireland is the only EU country where men still hold most of these jobs.

The report also notes that the European Union now has fewer judges overall than it did ten years ago, dropping to an average of about 16 judges for every 100,000 people.