THIS country has been ranked as the #1 place to start a family
- Meghan Blumsum
- Jan 19, 2023
- 4 min read
With recent studies from Biomed Central and the Institute for Social Policy revealing that appropriate parental leave is pivotal for the well-being of mothers, fathers, and children, countries across the globe are having their parental leave laws called into question. The duration and the percentage of wages remunerated during maternity and paternity leave are evidently vital for a family’s opportunity to overcome what can be an incredibly challenging period.
Curious to uncover more about the parental leave quality across Europe, Reboot SEO consultants sought to determine the best European country for new parents. After analysing the length, wage percentages and equal distribution of both maternity and paternity leave, they can now reveal all!
The best countries in Europe to become Parents
Results are sorted by most equal distribution of maternity and paternity leave after considering shared parental leave. More information and all data can be found HERE.
Reboot SEO consultants can reveal Romania is the best European country to become a new parent, offering a whopping 621 days of shared parental leave, scoring an outstanding 9.57 out of 10. This means Romania boasts the most days of guaranteed shared parental leave paid in Europe, 100% more than Ireland (0 days) in 2nd place.
However, Ireland managed to pinch the silver medal by ranking 8.28 out of 10 despite both the maternal and paternal leave days being much lower than the first. With 32 weeks of maternity leave, resulting in 160 total days, Ireland’s given paid days round up to a total of only 58.
Hungary takes third place with 7.63 out of 10. There are 51 fully paid days for both parents, and an additional 91 days of shared parental leave, while Sweden places fourth boasting 216 days of fully paid leave for mothers and fathers but has no shared parental leave. Ranking 7.42 out of 10 makes Sweden one of the six countries on the list to assign equal care to both new parents.
The European Countries with the best parental leave:
Becoming a parent is an exciting time, therefore, it is important to be in the best country for this to happen. Both mothers and fathers need as much support as possible and Reboot SEO consultants revealed that on average in Europe, fathers receive 76% less paid leave than mothers. So which European country offers the best amount of leave for each?
The Top Five European countries to become a mother, by days of leave.
Latvia - 304 days
United Kingdom - 234 days
Sweden - 216 days
Poland - 205 days
Luxembourg - 140 days
The Top Five European countries to become a father, by days of leave.
Latvia - 304 days
Sweden - 216 days
Poland - 205 days
Finland - 140 days
Romania - 130 days
You can find the full data HERE.
Reboot SEO consultants co-founder and managing director Naomi Aharony has provided a comment on the importance of fair parental leave, and an employer’s role in maintaining new parents’ well-being:
“Parental leave is essential in helping to build a child’s social and psychological development. For employers, the benefits are also important as evidence indicates it helps promote staff well-being and productivity which in turn helps with staff retention rates. The EU has adopted promising new directives over the last few years to tackle the work-life balance for parents but there is still a way to go before equality for parents is fully achieved.”
Methodology
Reboot SEO consultants sought to discover which European country was most beneficial for becoming a new parent and raising a family.
All European countries with the necessary information available were selected as the sample of this study, meaning 30 countries were analysed.
An index was created considering the following factors in each country:
The length of maternity leave.
The percentage of regular wages paid during maternity leave.
The length of paternity leave.
The percentage of regular wages paid during paternity leave.
Maternity leave length and pay percentages statistics for each country were collected from Eurofound, Wageindicator and ec.europa.eu.
Data on paternity leave length and pay percentages for each country were sourced from ec.europa.eu, Eurofound and Papayaglobal.com
Additional information on parenthood reforms and gender gaps were collected from Worldbank.org, OECD.org and the Global Gender Gap Report.
Several countries were given additional consideration as they each enforce further parental leave laws depending on context and circumstance. The list of these considerations can be found here.
Subsequently, data was pre-processed to obtain the days of paid paternity and maternity leave, since countries remunerate employees at a different rate during this period. The output was used to calculate the actual number of paid days if employees were receiving 100% of the wage.
Using the actual number of paid days, a combined score for ‘gender gap balance’ was found by calculating the variation between maternity and paternity leave payments for each country sampled.
Countries were then sorted by gender gap balance (from 0% to 100%) in order to find the best European country for new parents. Countries that have a gender gap balance closer to 0% were considered the most ‘equal,’ whilst those closest to 100% had a wider margin of inequality.
Please note that the countries with the same gender gap balance were ranked by the most total actual paid days.
Data should be accurate as of December 2022 but is subject to change.
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