Little over a quarter (25.3%) of business owners in Romania are women, which places the country at number 28 among the 54 markets included in the MasterCard Index of Women Entrepreneurs 2017.

Romania is thus behind other European countries such as Spain (30.8%), Poland (29.6%), Hungary (27.8%), and Switzerland and the UK (25.8% each), but ahead of Denmark (23.4%), and the Czech Republic (23.1%). France has the same share of woman business owners in the total number of business owners in the country, namely 25.3%.

Uganda tops the ranking with a share of 34.8%, followed by Botswana (34.6%), New Zealand (33.3%), Russia (32.6%), and Australia (32.4%). The top ten is completed by Bangladesh (31.6%), Vietnam (31.4%), China (30.9%), Spain (30.8%), and the U.S. (30.7%).

Out of the top 10 markets, only four are high income economies, namely New Zealand, Australia, Spain and United States. Romania is included among the upper middle income economies.

Romania registered an overall index score of 61.7%, which means that the women in this country are making fairly good progress as business leaders and professionals, have relatively good access to SME support, financial services, and education, and live in societies where underlying entrepreneurial supporting conditions are generally quite healthy, according to the Mastercard Index. With an overall index score of 74.4, New Zealand holds first place, followed by Canada (72.4), United States (69.9), Sweden (69.6), and Singapore (69.5).

Find the entire Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs here.

The most recent data from the Romanian Trade Registry shows that the number of women with the status of associate/shareholder in active companies is 451,800. By comparison, the number of men with the same status goes over 776,000, reports local Profit.ro.

Thus, the women’s share in the total number of associates/shareholders is 37%, while the men’s share is 63%. The total number of active companies in Romania is 810,550.

Most women entrepreneurs are in Bucharest, followed by Cluj and Timis counties.

Eurostat: Romania has the lowest gender pay gap for managers in the EU

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com