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Turnout by Country,
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Why PR Elects Women
Examples: Sweden, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, Germany Election Rules and Policy Results Sources and Definitions |
Proportional Representation (PR) lifts the quality of life for most citizens
— as you can see in these measures of democracy and life in 19 nations.
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You can sort these national statistics by voting rule, voter turnout, election of women or policy results. Just click on a column heading.
Column 2 lists the average number of Seats in each election district and the voting Rule used to elect the country's lower house.
Voter Turnout in column 3 is a measure of the incentive to vote.
Women Reps in column 4 shows the share of seats won by women.
Those three factors affect policies and results in health, education, poverty and safety as shown in the last four columns. Click a heading. |
| Country | Seats Rule | Voter Turnout | Women Reps | Health Rank | Math Score | Poverty % | Murders/ Million |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia * | 06; 1 STV | 95% | 35; 27 | 32 | 520 | 12% | 15 |
| Austria | 19 PR | 86% | 27% | 09 | 505 | 06% | -- |
| Belgium | 08.4 PR | 93% | 35% | 21 | 520 | 10% | -- |
| Canada | 01 Plurality | 67% | 21% | 30 | 527 | 15% | 15 |
| Denmark | 15 PR | 83% | 38% | 34 | 513 | 03% | 11 |
| Finland | 13 PR | 72% | 41% | -- | 548 | 04% | 28 |
| France | 01 Runoff | 65% | 18% | 01 | 496 | 08% | 17 |
| Germany * | 299; 1 MMP | 78% | 33; 13 | 25 | 504 | 16% | 12 |
| Greece | 05.7 PR | 77% | 15% | 14 | 459 | 13% | 07 |
| Iceland | 10 PR | 86% | 33% | 15 | 506 | -- | 17 |
| Ireland * | 04 STV | 69% | 13% | 19 | 501 | 16% | 09 |
| Netherlands | 150 PR | 80% | 39% | 17 | 528 | 12% | 11 |
| New Zealand * | 51; 1 MMP | 81% | 34; 15 | 41 | 522 | 15% | 11 |
| Norway | 08.7 PR | 83% | 36% | 11 | 490 | -- | 11 |
| Spain | 06.7 PR | 70% | 36% | 07 | 480 | 17% | 12 |
| Sweden * | 14 PR | 86% | 47% | 23 | 502 | 04% | -- |
| Switzerland | 07.8 PR | 47% | 28% | 20 | 530 | 09% | 09 |
| UK | 01 Plurality | 76% | 18% | 18 | 495 | 10% | 14 |
| USA | 01 Plurality | 53% | 17% | 37 | 474 | 21% | 42 |
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Why Proportional Representation Elects Women
Among the first questions many people ask are, “Why does Proportional Representation elect more women?” or, “How much do they affect policies?” Proportional Representation elects several reps in a district. So each party offers several nominees to the voters. An all-male slate or party list would look totally sexist; so parties nominate some women. But with one-winner districts, many voters don't notice if a party nominates only men. In a multi-winner race, a woman often is not always seen as running against a man or an incumbent. She is more likely to be seen as running for her issues and policies. (A party's list also may reveal its ethnic or religious bias; and Fair-share Spending can reveal their budget priorities.) |
Some leading women in Sweden considered starting their own party in 1994. Under plurality rules, new parties divide a side and lead to certain defeat. But PR promptly gives seats to a new party, if a big group of voters support it.
This credible threat made some parties decide that job seniority was not as important as gender balance. They raised some women up the party's candidate list. And they won. Now more women are incumbents with seniority, power and allies. Many countries elect more women now than 20 years ago. But the relative positions of countries change little — unless a country changes its voting rule as New Zealand did in 1996. The number of women elected rose from 21 to 35. The native Maoris elected rose from 6 to 15, which is almost proportional to the Maori population. Voters also elected 3 Polynesian reps and 1 Asian rep. |
| Australia is another good example to look at. Its lower house has 26% women, 37 of 150 seats in the 41st parliament, 40 of 150 seats in the 42nd. That is a higher share for women than any other house elected from Single-Winner Districts. They are elected by a voting rule called Alternative Vote, Preference Vote, Instant Runoff, and STV1 or Hare, by Australians, Europeans, Americans, and academics. As those names imply it 1) lets a voter rank many candidates and 2) combines the primary and general elections so there are often more than 2 important candidates. This encourages voter participation; turnout runs about 90%. Australia is often the country with the highest voter turnout. (Voting, like taxes and jury duty, is mandatory.) |
Australia's upper chamber is elected by multi-winner STV. Each province returns 6 senators. This filled 35% of the seats with women after the November 2007 election, 27 of 76 seats. The women's share of seats might be even higher if there were more than 6 seats in each district. But more seats are not needed as 35% compares well with other countries. And more seats in each district could attract more candidates, making the ballots longer and harder for voters.
Ireland elects fewer women than other PR countries partly because it elects fewer reps in each district — it is closer to using single-winner districts. |
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Election Rules and Policy Results
The statistics above make it clear: advocates for education, health care, a clean environment or a clean government should all work for better voting rules. When we work to ease urgent needs, we often overlook the essential needs, the roots of those problems. At the root, we often get poor policies, due to poor representation, due to poor election laws. The link between voting rules and quality of life is clear in statistics from nations. It's likely true for cities too, and for other democratic groups. Do female reps tend to raise education and health results?
Consequences: It appears that legislatures with fewer women tend to give less attention, priority and funding to health care, child care, education, and other social needs. Run-down schools and city hospitals are one blight; a class of citizens with inferior education and health are another. |
Statistic Definitions and Sources:
Women %, For a bicameral legislature, numbers are from the lower house. Inter-Parliamentary Union. Turnout, International Foundation for Electoral Systems. Health Rank, by the World Health Organization. Math Score, A higher number is better on this HS test. Program for International Student Assessment, OECD. Poverty, % of children below half of median income; OECD. Murder Rate, murders per million. Seventh United Nations Survey of Crime Trends. Other sources that show many measures of politics, economics, health and education: Globalis-Indicator, UN Data, and the Democracy Index by the Economist. The single-digit numbers have a zero in front to sort correctly when you click on the table's column headings. |
| Older statistics: Voter turnout and seats for woman vary from year to year in each country. But PR countries always hold the top spots and winner-take-all countries do poorly. Another page has more countries but older statistics on voter turnout statistics by country.
The next page has six short quotes about Proportional Representation. |
These pages answer questions about:
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Accurate Democracy 
