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World Bank Group · Firms with a Female Top Manager
Firms with a female top manager by country
What share of firms are run by a woman?
Kiribati placed first of the 170 countries compared in the 2025 edition, at 62.897%, and Qatar last, at 1.429%. In the middle country the figure was 19.132%. 9 readings from before 2015 are listed but not compared.
Firms with a female top manager · the 2025 edition
Context statistic
Highest of 170Kiribati
62.897%01the 2025 edition · position · derived
Who leads
The three countries at the highest end of 170 compared, the three at the other end, and the first on each continent.
1Photo: Photo taken by Government of Kiribati employee in the course of their work · CC BY 3.0, greyscale
2Photo: Tango7174 · CC BY-SA 4.0, greyscale
3Photo: Unknown author · CC BY 3.0, greyscale
02Every measured country
Firms with a female top manager on a map
Each country is shaded by its value, in five groups holding the same number of countries. Hover a country for its value, or select it to open its profile. Below the map, each continent’s middle country.
Darker is a higher value — the better end.
- 1.429–9.625%
- 10.216–16.436%
- 16.873–21.123%
- 21.180–26.674%
- 26.957–62.897%
- Hatched: a reading from before 2015, listed but not compared (9)
- No reading in the 2025 edition
- Americas
23.488%
the middle country, of 28 measured · 48 members
Jamaica37.893%
Argentina7.986%Highest and lowest reading in Americas.
- Oceania
22.469%
the middle country, of 9 measured · 21 members
Kiribati62.897%
New Zealand20.306%Highest and lowest reading in Oceania.
- Africa
17.627%
the middle country, of 50 measured · 55 members
South Africa38.513%
Guinea5.421%Highest and lowest reading in Africa.
- Europe
17.123%
the middle country, of 40 measured · 49 members
Poland32.281%
Luxembourg7.361%Highest and lowest reading in Europe.
- Asia
11.250%
the middle country, of 43 measured · 52 members
Laos50.690%
Qatar1.429%Highest and lowest reading in Asia.
- Every region
22 sub-regions, highest middle country first
- South-eastern Asia
33.655%
the middle country, of 11 measured · 11 members
Laos50.690%
Vietnam19.399%Highest and lowest reading in South-eastern Asia.
- Southern Africa
30.037%
the middle country, of 5 measured · 5 members
South Africa38.513%
Botswana22.968%Highest and lowest reading in Southern Africa.
- Eastern Asia
26.957%
the middle country, of 5 measured · 8 members
South Korea44.394%
Japan9.625%Highest and lowest reading in Eastern Asia.
- Central America
26.276%
the middle country, of 8 measured · 8 members
Panama28.424%
Mexico15.654%Highest and lowest reading in Central America.
- Caribbean
25.460%
the middle country, of 8 measured · 24 members
Jamaica37.893%
Barbados16.873%Highest and lowest reading in Caribbean.
- South America
21.718%
the middle country, of 10 measured · 12 members
Bolivia31.104%Argentina7.986%Highest and lowest reading in South America.
- Eastern Europe
20.765%
the middle country, of 10 measured · 10 members
Poland32.281%
Czechia14.381%Highest and lowest reading in Eastern Europe.
- Middle Africa
19.178%
the middle country, of 9 measured · 9 members
São Tomé and Príncipe25.083%
Equatorial Guinea8.100%Highest and lowest reading in Middle Africa.
- Eastern Africa
18.076%
the middle country, of 17 measured · 19 members
Madagascar37.336%
Somalia9.172%Highest and lowest reading in Eastern Africa.
- Southern Europe
16.426%
the middle country, of 13 measured · 17 members
Croatia26.175%
Kosovo9.237%Highest and lowest reading in Southern Europe.
- Northern Europe
16.059%
the middle country, of 10 measured · 13 members
Latvia24.135%
Denmark9.476%Highest and lowest reading in Northern Europe.
- Western Europe
14.777%
the middle country, of 7 measured · 9 members
Austria18.914%Luxembourg7.361%Highest and lowest reading in Western Europe.
- Western Africa
13.324%
the middle country, of 16 measured · 16 members
Cabo Verde26.674%Guinea5.421%Highest and lowest reading in Western Africa.
- Central Asia
12.338%
the middle country, of 5 measured · 5 members
Kazakhstan31.101%
Turkmenistan6.084%Highest and lowest reading in Central Asia.
- Southern Asia
9.145%
the middle country, of 8 measured · 9 members
Bhutan21.415%
Pakistan3.401%Highest and lowest reading in Southern Asia.
- Western Asia
6.609%
the middle country, of 14 measured · 19 members
Armenia28.227%Qatar1.429%Highest and lowest reading in Western Asia.
- Australia and New Zealand
2 of 2 measured — too few for a middle: Australia, New Zealand.
Australia20.540%New Zealand20.306%Highest and lowest reading in Australia and New Zealand.
- Melanesia
4 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu.
Vanuatu39.691%
Solomon Islands20.795%Highest and lowest reading in Melanesia.
- Micronesia
1 of 7 measured — too few for a middle: Kiribati.
Kiribati62.897%Highest and lowest reading in Micronesia.
- Northern Africa
3 of 6 measured — too few for a middle: Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia.
Tunisia8.992%
Morocco5.438%Highest and lowest reading in Northern Africa.
- Northern America
2 of 4 measured — too few for a middle: Canada, United States.
United States23.215%
Canada21.894%Highest and lowest reading in Northern America.
- Polynesia
2 of 7 measured — too few for a middle: Samoa, Tonga.
Samoa47.978%
Tonga30.182%Highest and lowest reading in Polynesia.
03The whole field at once
The spread
170 countries, one dot each, on one scale — further right is a higher value. Half the countries are above 19.132%; a quarter are above 24.377%, and a quarter below 11.871%. The bar in each row marks that continent’s middle country.
04All 179 ever measured
Every country
In order, highest value first. “=” marks a position shared with another country. World Bank Group ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. Enterprise Surveys cover the formal private sector — mostly manufacturing and services, mostly in developing economies. That leaves out farms, the public sector and informal businesses, which is where most women in most countries actually work, and it leaves most high-income countries out of the table altogether.
Showing 25 of 179 countries
Values for the 2025 edition.
05In this edition
Firms with a female top manager in records
The extremes of the statistic. A record reached by more than one country names none of them.
Highest reading
62.897%
Firms with a female top manager (%)
Lowest reading
1.429%
Firms with a female top manager (%)
06The measure
About firms with a female top manager
This is the share of private firms whose top manager is a woman. Where the female share of management counts women employed as managers, this counts women in charge of the business.
What the number is: Firms with a female top manager (%).
07Where it fits
Connections
Its part in the Country Index, the statistics whose values line up most closely with it across countries, and others on the same subject.
In the Country Index
Context, with no vote
This statistic is published in full under Work & Labour and Gender & Equality, but does not help decide any Country Index standing.
Work & LabourGender & EqualityWhich statistics vote, and why
Moves with
Where firms with a female top manager is higher, these tend to be higher too.
- Female Share of Senior and Middle ManagementILO · 84 countries in commonρ 0.42
Moves against
Where firms with a female top manager is higher, these tend to be lower.
No statistic lines up this closely.
Rank correlation (ρ, from −1 to 1) across countries, on each statistic’s newest edition, out of 122 statistics sharing at least 80 countries with this one. Two statistics that move together do not cause each other.
08Keep reading
Explore further
The subject
The data, edition by edition
More from World Bank Group
09Questions
Firms with a female top manager: questions and answers
Which country has the highest firms with a female top manager?
Kiribati, at 62.897%, among the 170 countries compared in the 2025 edition.
Which country has the lowest firms with a female top manager?
Qatar, at 1.429%, among the 170 countries compared in the 2025 edition.
How many countries does the Firms with a Female Top Manager cover?
170 in the 2025 edition, and 179 at least once across all editions.
What is the world average firms with a female top manager?
This site does not calculate a world average, which would depend on how countries are weighted. In the middle country of the 170 compared in the 2025 edition, the figure was 19.132%.
Is this World Bank Group’s own ranking?
No. World Bank Group publishes the values but ranks nobody; the position on this page is derived by Nations Inquiry by ordering the published values, and equal values share a position.
How often is the Firms with a Female Top Manager published?
This site holds one edition, describing 2025.
Where does the data come from, and can I download it?
From World Bank Group, under CC BY 4.0. World Bank Enterprise Surveys via its indicator API. Taken as one reading per country, because each economy is surveyed only every few years. Every edition is available on this site’s Datasets pages as a full table, unrounded.
10Method
Sources, method and citation
Source
Firms with a Female Top Manager — World Bank Group
World Bank Enterprise Surveys via its indicator API. Taken as one reading per country, because each economy is surveyed only every few years.
Newest edition
Report year 2025Data year not recorded
Cite the source as: World Bank. Enterprise Surveys. Washington, DC: World Bank Group.
Licence: CC BY 4.0, checked 2026-09-10.
How this page reads the numbers
- World Bank Group ranks nobody on this measure. The position is derived by Nations Inquiry by ordering the published values; equal values share a position.
- Which end is better follows the publisher’s own reading of the measure.
- A country is named at an end only when it holds that value alone. Where several share it, the page says how many and names none first.
- The file gives each country’s most recent reading, so the rows are from different years. Readings from before 2015 are listed but left out of every comparison on this page.
- Values are stored exactly as published and trimmed only for display. “The middle country” is the median of the countries measured, not a world average.
The full note on this data
179 countries, each from its own most recent reading (2009–2025), from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys via its indicator API (IC.FRM.FEMM.ZS). It is the counterpart to the FEMALE SHARE OF MANAGEMENT already on the site: that one counts women employed as managers, this one counts women RUNNING the firm. ⚠ ONE READING PER COUNTRY rather than annual editions — Enterprise Surveys visit each economy once every few years, so no single year reaches 80 countries while 179 have been surveyed at some point. This is why the row was deferred in batch 7 and built in batch 8; the shape was the limit, not the data. ⚠ THE FORMAL PRIVATE SECTOR ONLY, and mostly manufacturing and services, so it says nothing about farms, the public sector or informal businesses — which is where most women work in most of the world. ⚠ High-income countries are largely absent: Enterprise Surveys concentrate on developing economies. No rank is published; the POSITION is derived here and labelled as ours.
Photographs
The countries at the top of this statistic, from their profiles: Wikimedia Commons, shown in greyscale, each used under the licence named.
- Kiribati — Photo taken by Government of Kiribati employee in the course of their work, CC BY 3.0
- Laos — Tango7174, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Thailand — Unknown author, CC BY 3.0
Cite this page
Nations Inquiry (2026). Firms with a female top manager by country: Firms with a Female Top Manager, data from World Bank Group. https://nationsinquiry.com/statistics/female-top-managers