LGBT Equality Index in Europe

The most LGBT-Friendly Places in Europe

The Equality Index measures the current status of LGBT rights, laws, and freedoms as well as public attitudes towards LGBT people.

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Equality Index ?

0 (Less Equal)

100 (More Equal)

Public Opinion vs. Legal Rights

Equality Index by Region

Australia and New Zealand, the Nordic countries, and parts of Europe rank highest in terms of the Equality Index while the Middle East and most of Africa (with the exception of South Africa) rank lowest — both in terms of legal protections and public opinion.

Region	Equality Index	Legal Index	Public Opinion Index
Nordic Countries 5 countries	84 / 100	91 / 100	78 / 100
British Islands 2 countries	74	86	61
Western Europe 9 countries	73	82	64
Southern Europe 16 countries	57	73	42
Baltic Countries 3 countries	52	69	35
Eastern Europe 10 countries	45	58	32
Middle East 5 countries	37	56	18

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Largest Disparities

Regions where legal progress and public views don't align. Comparing the legal rights and the public opinion highlights regions where the public's support has advanced past (or fallen behind) legal progress. These may be potential areas for advocacy and change. (Countries without public opinion data are excluded.)

Public Opinion Ahead of Legal Progress

Country	Legal Index	Public Opinion Index	Difference
1. Liechtenstein	63 / 100	69 / 100	+6
2. San Marino	65	71	+6

Legal Progress Ahead of Public Opinion

Country	Legal Index	Public Opinion Index	Difference
1. Montenegro	75 / 100	16 / 100	-59
2. Moldova	64	8	-55
3. Georgia	65	12	-52
4. Albania	62	12	-50
5. Bosnia and Herzegovina	67	17	-50
6. Croatia	82	35	-47
7. North Macedonia	57	13	-44
8. Serbia	64	21	-43
9. Azerbaijan	48	5	-43
10. Armenia	49	6	-42

Europe Equality Index

Which countries are the most LGBT-friendly?

The Legal Index scores the legal rights and freedoms LGBTQ+ people have while the Public Opinion Index scores how the general public feels in each region.

Country	Equality Index	Legal Index	Public Opinion Index
1. Iceland	92 / 100	98 / 100	87 / 100
2. Denmark	87	96	79
3. Norway	86	88	84
4. Malta	85	100	71
5. Netherlands	83	95	70
6. Andorra	82	89	74
7. Spain	80	93	68
8. Germany	80	95	65
9. Luxembourg	79	85	72
10. Finland	78	88	68
11. Sweden	77	85	70
12. Belgium	77	91	63
13. France	77	93	61
14. Austria	74	87	62
15. United Kingdom	74	87	62
16. Portugal	74	89	60
17. Ireland	73	85	61
18. Switzerland	68	76	61
19. San Marino	68	65	71
20. Slovenia	68	86	50
21. Liechtenstein	66	63	69
22. Czech Republic	65	69	62
23. Italy	64	68	60
24. Greece	61	79	42
25. Estonia	60	80	41
26. Croatia	58	82	35
27. Cyprus	56	76	35
28. Poland	55	65	45
29. Hungary	54	65	43
30. Monaco	52	53	51
31. Latvia	51	65	37
32. Romania	47	57	36
33. Ukraine	46	65	28
34. Montenegro	46	75	16
35. Slovakia	45	53	36
36. Lithuania	45	63	26
37. Bulgaria	43	61	24
38. Kosovo	42	64	21
39. Serbia	42	64	21
40. Bosnia and Herzegovina	42	67	17
41. Georgia	38	65	12
42. Turkey	38	43	33
43. Albania	37	62	12
44. Moldova	36	64	8
45. North Macedonia	35	57	13
46. Vatican City	32	32	—
47. Russia	31	42	20
48. Belarus	29	43	16
49. Armenia	27	49	6
50. Azerbaijan	27	48	5

Equality Index Methodology

Equaldex's Equality Index is a rating from 0 to 100 (with 100 being the most equal) to help visualize the legal rights and public attitudes towards LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex...) people in each region. The Equality Index is an average of two indexes: the legal index and the public opinion Index.

Equality Index

Average of Legal Index and Public Opinion Index

Legal Index

The LGBT legal index measures the current legal status of 13 different issues ranging from the legal status of homosexuality, same-sex marriage, transgender rights, LGBT discrimination protections, LGBT censorship laws, and more. Each topic is weighted differently (for example, if same-sex marriage is illegal in a region, it would have a much bigger impact on the score than not allowing LGBT people to serve in the military). Each topic is assigned a "total possible score" and a "score" is assigned based the status of the law using a rating scale that ranges from 0% to 100% (for example, if homosexuality is legal, it would would receive a score of 100, but if it's illegal, it would receve a score of 0.)

If the status of an issue is unknown, not applicable, or no data has not been added to Equaldex, the issue's score is completely discarded and not included in the ranking. In cases where a law varies throughout a region (for example, a country where same-sex marriage is legal in some states or provinces but not others), the score is averaged among all states or provinces, weighted equally.

Past laws that are no longer in effect do not impact the region's current score. New laws that have not gone into effect yet will not impact the region's score until the day it goes into effect.

Legal Index

(Total Possible Score for each issue × Factor of Status of Issue) / Sum of all Total Possible Scores

Show Scoring

Issue	Total Possible Score	Status	Factor
Homosexual activity	100	Legal	×1.00
		Male illegal, female uncertain	×0.20
		Male illegal, female legal	×0.20
		Illegal (other penalty)	×0.15
		Illegal (imprisonment as punishment)	×0.10
		Illegal (up to life in prison as punishment)	×0.05
		Illegal (death penalty as punishment)	×0.00
Same-sex marriage	60	Legal	×1.00
		Civil unions	×0.70
		Other type of partnership	×0.50
		Foreign same-sex marriages recognized only	×0.40
		Unregistered cohabitation	×0.30
		Unrecognized	×0.10
		Unrecognized, same-sex marriage and civil unions banned	×0.05
		Not legal	×0.00
Censorship of LGBT Issues	40	No censorship	×1.00
		State-enforced	×0.30
		Fine as punishment	×0.20
		Other punishment	×0.10
		Imprisonment as punishment	×0.00
Right to change legal gender	40	Legal, surgery not required	×1.00
		Legal, but requires medical diagnosis	×0.70
		Legal, but requires surgery	×0.40
		Illegal	×0.00
Legal recognition of non-binary gender	30	Recognized	×1.00
		Intersex only	×0.70
		Not legally recognized	×0.00
LGBT discrimination	20	Illegal	×1.00
		Illegal in some contexts	×0.50
		No protections	×0.00
LGBT employment discrimination	20	Sexual orientation and gender identity	×1.00
		Sexual orientation only	×0.50
		No protections	×0.00
LGBT housing discrimination	20	Sexual orientation and gender identity	×1.00
		Sexual orientation only	×0.50
		No protections	×0.00
Same-sex adoption	20	Legal	×1.00
		Married couples only	×0.50
		Single only	×0.40
		Step-child adoption only	×0.20
		Illegal	×0.00
Serving openly in military	20	Legal	×1.00
		Lesbians, gays, bisexuals permitted, transgender people banned	×0.70
		Don't Ask, Don't Tell	×0.50
		Illegal	×0.00
Blood donations by MSMs	10	Legal	×1.00
		Legal with restrictions	×0.80
		Banned (3-month deferral)	×0.30
		Banned (6-month deferral)	×0.20
		Banned (1-year deferral)	×0.15
		Banned (5-year deferral)	×0.10
		Banned (indefinite deferral)	×0.00
Conversion therapy	10	Banned	×1.00
Conversion therapy	10	Not banned	×0.00
Equal age of consent	10	Equal	×1.00
Equal age of consent	10	Unequal	×0.00

Public Opinion Index

The LGBT public opinion index measures the public attitudes towards LGBT people using surveys and polls from reputable organizations. This index is scored based on averaging the results of all surveys in a given region. Generally, the value averaged is usually the most “equal” response in the poll. For example, if a poll asked “Do you support same-sex marriage?” and 56% of people said “yes”, the value “56” would be used. In some cases, a survey may be weighted less if the survey is very specific or includes a specific group of people (such as Christians) and might not be a full representation of the overall attitudes of the region.

To better represent current attitudes, surveys are scored using a time-decay weighting method based on the date published. This means that the most recent surveys carry more weight in the public opinion index. Surveys from the current year and the previous year receive full weight. However, for surveys older than two years, an exponential decay of 75% applies each year. This weight decay ensures that the public opinion index is always most influenced by the most recent data, reflecting evolving public attitudes, while still taking into account older surveys to maintain a comprehensive overview. This change went into effect on July 21, 2023.

Note that public opinion data is not available in every region. In these cases, the Equality Index will only be a representation of the legal rights of LGBT people in the region. Additionally, some regions have no recent public opinion data available, so older data is used to score the region.

Public Opinion Index

(Survey Results Value × Survey Weight × Time Decay Factor) / (Survey Weight × Time Decay Factor)

Show Survey Time Decay

Year Survey Published	Time Decay Factor
2023 (current year)	0.75⁰	1
2022	0.75⁰	1
2021	0.75¹	0.75
2020	0.75²	0.5625
2019	0.75³	0.421875
2018	0.75⁴	0.31640625
2017	0.75⁵	0.2373046875
2016	0.75⁶	0.177978515625
2015	0.75⁷	0.13348388671875
2014	0.75⁸	0.10011291503906
2013	0.75⁹	0.075084686279297
(etc.)

Notes

Equaldex's Equality Index is constantly being improved and tracking it over time may not represent changes in equality over time. As more data is contributed to Equaldex, the index becomes more accurate. For example, adding survey results to a region will likely change the region's Equality Index — even more so if there is limited data on the region. In this case, the change in score could represent a change in attitudes in the region, but it may also just be an increase in the index's accuracy.
Global opinion surveys rarely include transgender topics. Especially in more conservative regions, surveys are usually limited to homosexuality or same-sex marriage. Equaldex continues to seek more international transgender public opinion data to make the Equality Index more inclusive.
The model for the Equality Index is evolving, and adjustments to weights and other parameters are likely as we continue to improve its accuracy and relevance.
The Equality Index is updated automatically as data is added to Equaldex and as new laws go into effect. When a new law or survey is added to Equaldex, the index will recalculate within a few hours.