Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Statistics 2026

How to read this page: every figure names its source and year. Survey results, official statistics, vendor claims and figures from our own directory are labeled separately, because they are not equally reliable.

How diverse is the U.S. workforce, and its management?

BLS Current Population Survey annual averages for 2025 (11-month average because October data were not collected) compare the whole workforce with management occupations and chief executives.

1. Women made up 47.1% of all employed people in the United States in 2025, but 41.8% of people in management occupations and 33.0% of chief executives.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey table 11 (employed persons by detailed occupation, sex, race and ethnicity), 2025Official statistics
2. Black or African American workers made up 12.7% of U.S. employment in 2025, 8.8% of management occupations and 5.6% of chief executives.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey table 11 (employed persons by detailed occupation, sex, race and ethnicity), 2025Official statistics
3. Asian workers made up 7.5% of U.S. employment in 2025, 7.4% of management occupations and 7.0% of chief executives, a share close to their workforce share at every level shown.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey table 11 (employed persons by detailed occupation, sex, race and ethnicity), 2025Official statistics
4. Hispanic or Latino workers made up 20.0% of U.S. employment in 2025, 13.5% of management occupations and 8.4% of chief executives.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey table 11 (employed persons by detailed occupation, sex, race and ethnicity), 2025Official statistics

What do EU employment and management figures show by gender?

Eurostat publishes employment and occupation data from the EU Labour Force Survey.

1. Women held 35.3% of positions in the combined Eurostat group of small entrepreneurs and managers in the EU in 2024, with men holding 64.7%.Source: Eurostat, Gender statistics (Statistics Explained), 2024Official statistics
2. The EU employment rate for people aged 20 to 64 was 76.1% in 2025, with 80.9% for men and 71.3% for women.Source: Eurostat, Employment - annual statistics (Statistics Explained), 2025Official statistics
3. The EU gender employment gap was 9.6 percentage points for ages 25 to 54 and 12.1 points for ages 55 to 64 in 2024, with women less likely to be employed in both groups.Source: Eurostat, Gender statistics (Statistics Explained), 2024Official statistics
4. Women in the EU worked part time at a rate of 27.8% in 2024, compared with 7.7% for men.Source: Eurostat, Gender statistics (Statistics Explained), 2024Official statistics

How large are gender and ethnic pay gaps according to statistical offices?

Pay gap figures differ by definition: Eurostat and ONS report unadjusted gaps in hourly earnings, while BLS reports weekly earnings of full-time workers.

1. The unadjusted gender pay gap in the EU was 11.1% in 2024 (11.4% in the euro area), and the figure is provisional until Structure of Earnings Survey benchmark data arrive in December 2026.Source: Eurostat, Gender pay gap statistics (Statistics Explained), 2024Official statistics
2. National gender pay gaps in the EU in 2024 ranged from 18.8% in Estonia to -0.8% in Luxembourg, the only member state where men earned less than women on average before adjustment.Source: Eurostat, Gender pay gap statistics (Statistics Explained), 2024Official statistics
3. In financial and insurance activities, national gender pay gaps in the EU ran from 12.2% in Spain to 40.3% in Hungary in 2024.Source: Eurostat, Gender pay gap statistics (Statistics Explained), 2024Official statistics
4. The gender pay gap for managers in the EU was 27.1% in 2022, compared with 12.2% across all employees.Source: Eurostat, Gender statistics (Statistics Explained), 2022Official statistics
5. The UK gender pay gap for median hourly earnings excluding overtime was 12.8% for all employees in April 2025 (provisional), down from 13.1% in April 2024, and 6.9% for full-time employees.Source: Office for National Statistics, Gender pay gap in the UK: 2025, 2025Official statistics
6. Among UK full-time employees in April 2025, the gender pay gap was 0.9% for ages 22 to 29, 3.9% for ages 30 to 39, 9.1% for ages 40 to 49, 12.5% for ages 50 to 59 and 12.6% for ages 60 and over.Source: Office for National Statistics, Gender pay gap in the UK: 2025, 2025Official statistics
7. In the third quarter of 2026, women working full time in the United States had median usual weekly earnings equal to 83.4% of men's ($1,127 against $1,352).Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers, 2026Official statistics
8. Within each group, women's median weekly earnings in Q3 2026 were 81.6% of men's among White workers, 81.8% among Asian workers, 89.4% among Hispanic workers and 95.6% among Black workers; each ratio compares women and men in the same group only.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers, 2026Official statistics

What do official statistics say about employment and disability?

Definitions of disability differ between the U.S. Current Population Survey and the EU's activity-limitation questions, so the two sets of figures should not be compared directly.

1. In 2025, 22.8% of U.S. people with a disability were employed, compared with 65.2% of people without a disability.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics, 2025Official statistics
2. The U.S. unemployment rate in 2025 was 8.3% for people with a disability and 4.1% for people without a disability.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics, 2025Official statistics
3. About 30% of employed U.S. people with a disability usually worked part time in 2025, compared with about 17% of those without a disability.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics, 2025Official statistics
4. The EU disability employment gap for ages 20 to 64 was 24.0 percentage points in 2024.Source: Eurostat, Employment gaps for women and people with disabilities (news article), 2024Official statistics
5. EU unemployment rates for ages 15 to 64 in 2024 were 5.9% for people without a disability, 9.1% for people with some disability and 11.6% for people with a severe disability.Source: Eurostat, Disability statistics - unemployment and people outside the labour force (Statistics Explained), 2024Official statistics
6. In a Deloitte survey of about 10,000 people with disabilities, chronic conditions or neurodivergence in 20 countries, 41% said they had experienced non-inclusive behavior such as bullying, microaggressions or harassment at work in the past year, and about half of those incidents (52%) were formally reported.Source: Deloitte, Disability Inclusion @ Work 2024, 2024Survey

How do age and workforce composition shape these figures?

1. In 2025 the U.S. employment-population ratio was 69.9% for men and 59.7% for women aged 55 to 64, and 22.3% for men and 15.2% for women aged 65 and over.Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey table 3, 2025Official statistics
2. In the EU in 2025, the employment rate of people aged 55 to 64 was 72.3% for men and 60.8% for women.Source: Eurostat, Employment - annual statistics (Statistics Explained), 2025Official statistics

What do inclusion and belonging surveys report?

These figures come from self-reported surveys with different samples, so they describe perceptions rather than measured outcomes.

1. In a Pew Research Center survey of U.S. workers in February 2023, 56% said focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion at work is a good thing, 28% said neither good nor bad and 16% said a bad thing.Source: Pew Research Center, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace, 2023Survey
2. In the same Pew survey, 78% of Black workers, 72% of Asian workers, 65% of Hispanic workers and 47% of White workers said DEI focus is a good thing, while 21% of White workers called it a bad thing.Source: Pew Research Center, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace, 2023Survey
3. In the Pew survey, 78% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning workers called a DEI focus a good thing, compared with 30% of Republicans and Republican-leaning workers.Source: Pew Research Center, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace, 2023Survey
4. An EY Belonging Barometer survey of about 5,000 workers in the U.S., U.K., Germany, India and Singapore found that 75% had felt excluded at work and 56% said they could not, or were reluctant to, share aspects of their identity.Source: EY Belonging Barometer, as reported by HR Dive, 2023Survey
5. Gallup reported in 2022 that 42% of U.S. employees said working for a diverse and inclusive employer is very important when considering a new job, and 30% agreed that their opinions count at work.Source: Gallup, What Drives a Culture of Belonging, 2022Survey
6. The 2025 Women in the Workplace study by LeanIn.Org and McKinsey drew on 124 participating organizations employing about 3 million people and a survey of roughly 9,500 employees, and it reported that only half of companies were prioritizing women's career advancement that year.Source: LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company, Women in the Workplace 2025, 2025Survey
7. In Deloitte's 2024 disability survey, only 36% of respondents had access to workplace role models with disabilities, and 47% of those who did said role models made them more comfortable disclosing a disability or health condition.Source: Deloitte, Disability Inclusion @ Work 2024, 2024Survey

What does EU pay transparency law require, and when?

Directive (EU) 2023/970 sets minimum rules for pay transparency; each member state writes its own national law.

1. Article 34 of Directive (EU) 2023/970 required member states to bring into force the laws needed to comply with it by 7 June 2026.Source: EUR-Lex, Directive (EU) 2023/970 (official text), 2023Official statistics
2. Under Article 9 of the directive, employers with 250 or more workers must report pay gap data by 7 June 2027 and every year after that.Source: EUR-Lex, Directive (EU) 2023/970 (official text), 2023Official statistics
3. Under Article 9, employers with 150 to 249 workers must report by 7 June 2027 and every three years thereafter, and employers with 100 to 149 workers must report by 7 June 2031 and every three years thereafter.Source: EUR-Lex, Directive (EU) 2023/970 (official text), 2023Official statistics
4. Article 10 requires a joint pay assessment when reporting shows an average pay difference between female and male workers of at least 5% that the employer has not justified on objective, gender-neutral criteria or corrected within six months.Source: EUR-Lex, Directive (EU) 2023/970 (official text), 2023Official statistics
5. Article 5 gives job applicants the right to be told the initial pay or pay range for a position, based on objective, gender-neutral criteria.Source: EUR-Lex, Directive (EU) 2023/970 (official text), 2023Official statistics
6. Article 5 also prohibits employers from asking applicants about their pay history in current or previous employment relationships.Source: EUR-Lex, Directive (EU) 2023/970 (official text), 2023Official statistics

How strong is the evidence linking diversity to business performance?

Consultancy studies report positive associations; academic replication attempts report weak or no reliable relationships. Both sides concern correlation, and neither shows what happens inside an individual company.

1. Bermiss, Green and Hand tested nine racial and ethnic diversity measures against six financial performance measures for S&P 500 firms across five years (270 regressions) and found a statistically significant link in only nine of them, close to what chance would produce.Source: Chicago Booth Review, on Bermiss, Green and Hand in the Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, 2023Study
2. The same authors report that McKinsey's studies measure financial performance over several years before measuring executive diversity at the end of that period, which they argue could mean profitable firms become more diverse rather than the reverse; McKinsey states its research shows correlation, not causation.Source: Chicago Booth Review, on Bermiss, Green and Hand in the Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, 2023Study
3. The authors of that study could not replicate McKinsey's results using S&P 500 data, and they note that diversity may have benefits that do not depend on firm-level profitability.Source: Chicago Booth Review, on Bermiss, Green and Hand in the Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, 2023Study
4. Dobbin and Kalev's analysis of more than 800 U.S. firms over three decades found that mandatory diversity training showed no improvement in the share of white women, Black men or Hispanic managers after five years, and that Black women's share fell by about 9% on average.Source: Harvard Business Review, Why Diversity Programs Fail, 2016Study
5. In the same analysis, voluntary training was followed by gains of 9% to 13% after five years for Black men, Hispanic men and Asian American men and women in management, and mentoring programs by gains of 9% to 24% for several groups of women and minority men.Source: Harvard Business Review, Why Diversity Programs Fail, 2016Study
6. Dobbin and Kalev also found that written job tests, performance ratings and formal grievance systems were followed by declines of 3% to 11% in managerial representation for several groups, and they describe the data as observational, from firms that adopted each practice.Source: Harvard Business Review, Why Diversity Programs Fail, 2016Study

Methodology

We opened every source page directly and kept only figures visible on it: BLS, Eurostat, the UK Office for National Statistics, EUR-Lex, Pew Research Center, Gallup, Deloitte, EY (via HR Dive), LeanIn.Org and McKinsey, the Chicago Booth Review and Harvard Business Review. Each fact gives the data year, or the publication year when fieldwork dates are not stated, and is labeled official, survey or study. Figures seen only in search snippets were left out.

Limits: definitions differ between countries, so U.S., EU and UK figures are not directly comparable (for example, disability is defined differently by the Current Population Survey and EU activity-limitation questions, and pay gaps use hourly or weekly earnings). Several EU 2024 figures are provisional. Survey results are self-reported and often lack a published sample.

Representation and pay gap figures describe averages and do not show whether pay for the same work differs. The performance studies cited are observational and cannot establish cause. We did not use country-level data beyond the examples shown, and some widely quoted figures could not be confirmed on the publisher's own page.

Frequently asked questions

What is the gender pay gap in the EU?

Eurostat reports an unadjusted gender pay gap of 11.1% for the EU in 2024, ranging from 18.8% in Estonia to -0.8% in Luxembourg. The figure compares average hourly earnings of all women and men and is provisional until December 2026 benchmark data.

When does the EU pay transparency directive apply?

Directive (EU) 2023/970 set a transposition deadline of 7 June 2026. Employers with 250 or more workers report pay gap data by 7 June 2027, then yearly; smaller employers report later or less often, and national laws set the details.

Is there proof that diverse leadership improves company profits?

The evidence is mixed. Consultancy studies report positive associations, while an academic test on S&P 500 firms found a significant link in only nine of 270 regressions. Both rely on correlation, so neither shows that diversity causes better results.

How large is the disability employment gap?

Eurostat measured a 24.0 percentage point gap between people with and without disabilities in the EU in 2024 (ages 20 to 64). In the United States, 22.8% of people with a disability were employed in 2025, against 65.2% of people without.

Why are DEI figures hard to compare across countries?

Countries define disability, ethnicity and pay differently, and many categories are not collected in all of them. Surveys use different samples and questions. Compare a figure only with the same source's other years or groups.