Politics & Elections · Women in parliament · Namibia
Namibia’s women in parliament rose to 42.3% of seats in 2025.
42.3% of seats
2025
Up 1.7 pp from 2024.
Updated 8 Oct 2026
In plain words
42.3% of seats
What it is. This measure gives the share of seats held by women in the national parliament, using the lower house or the single house where there is only one. The Inter-Parliamentary Union compiles it and the World Bank passes it on. Every seat counts the same, so a woman chairing a major committee and a woman on the back benches add equally to the figure. Upper houses, cabinet posts and local councils sit outside the count.
Higher is better. A higher share means women cast more of the votes and take part in more of the decisions on laws and budgets, which is why a rise is good news for this measure. Namibia stood at 42.3% of seats in January 2025, up from 40.6% of seats a year earlier, a gain of 1.7 percentage points. Since 2016 the share has ranged from a low of 40.6% of seats in January 2024 to a high of 46.2% of seats in January 2018. The latest figure therefore sits nearer the bottom of that range than the top, and it is the first rise after the low point of 2024.
Why it matters. At 42.3% of seats, women hold a large minority of the places in the chamber that votes on Namibia's budgets, health spending, land rules and family law. Households see the effect in who raises and shapes those issues in debate. The next count of seats will show whether the share climbs back towards the 46.2% of seats recorded in 2018.
| Period | Women in parliament · Namibia |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 41.3% of seats |
| 2017 | 41.3% of seats |
| 2018 | 46.2% of seats |
| 2019 | 42.7% of seats |
| 2020 | 43.3% of seats |
| 2021 | 44.2% of seats |
| 2022 | 44.2% of seats |
| 2023 | 44.2% of seats |
| 2024 | 40.6% of seats |
| 2025 | 42.3% of seats |
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0) · Licence: CC BY 4.0
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Strata-AF™ Data, Women in parliament, Namibia, 2025; source World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0), retrieved 8 Oct 2026; https://data.strata-af.com/elections/women-in-parliament/namibia
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Methodology
Share of seats held by women in the national parliament (lower or single house), from the Inter-Parliamentary Union via the World Bank. Unit: % of seats.
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (series SG.GEN.PARL.ZS), retrieved through the World Bank API and published under CC BY 4.0. Updated annually; the World Bank's own source notes apply.