How many judges does the EU have?
In 2024, the EU had 15.7 professional judges per 100 000 people, down from 17.7 in 2014.
Among EU countries, Croatia and Slovenia registered the highest ratios, with 43.3 and 40.2 judges per 100 000 people. Luxembourg (36.0), Bulgaria (35.4) and Romania (35.3) followed.
On the lowest end, there was Ireland with 3.6 judges per 100 000 people, followed by Austria (4.3), Spain (6.2), Czechia (6.7) and Italy (7.9).
Source dataset: crim_just_job
Women in the majority in almost all EU countries
Female professional judges are more prevalent in most EU countries. Only in Ireland was the share of male judges (56.4%) higher than female judges (43.6%): 110 men vs 85 women.
In Slovenia, female judges represented 81.4% of all professional judges (694 women vs 159 men), the highest share among EU countries, and followed closely by Latvia with 79.7% female judges (408 vs 104). Greece also recorded a high share, with 75.5% female judges (2 042 vs 662). Germany’s judiciary is nearly evenly split, with female judges representing 50.7% of all professional judges (11 139 vs 10 813).
Source dataset: crim_just_job
This news article marks the Day of International Criminal Justice, on 17 July, the anniversary of the adoption in 1998 of the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the only permanent international criminal jurisdiction with a universal vocation.
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Methodological notes
- Professional judge: both full-time and part-time official legal professionals as of 31 December authorised to hear civil, criminal, and other cases, including in appeal courts, and to make dispositions in a court of law, who have been recruited and are paid to practice as a judge. This category excludes non-professional judges such as lay judges and lay magistrates.
- EU aggregate was calculated by Eurostat for the purpose of this publication.
- Cyprus: data not available.
- Czechia: breakdown by sex is not available.
- Austria and Czechia: only include judges who are authorized to hear specifically criminal cases.
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