Cyprus only EU nation where more girls than boys code

Cyprus is the only EU country where girls aged 16 to 19 outperform boys in coding, according to a report from Eurostat, highlighting a noteworthy exception in digital skills trends across Europe.

The findings, based on a survey on ICT use in households and by individuals for 2025, showed that while a gender gap persists across most EU countries, Cyprus recorded a 4.3 percentage point lead for girls in coding.

Across the EU, girls in this age group demonstrated higher levels of digital content creation skills than the general population, underlining their growing digital competence.

Among internet users, 79.2 per cent of girls copied or moved files between folders, devices or cloud services, indicating strong proficiency in everyday digital tasks.

A further 75.2 per cent used word processing software, while 71.4 per cent created files combining text, images, tables, charts, animations or sound.

In addition, 62.4 per cent edited photos, video or audio files, and 52.0 per cent used spreadsheet software in the three months preceding the survey.

More advanced skills were also evident, with 24.4 per cent using advanced spreadsheet features to organise, analyse or modify data.

At the same time, 10 per cent of girls reported writing code in a programming language, reflecting engagement in more technical digital activities.

Across all these areas, girls exceeded the levels recorded for the general population, with differences ranging from 28.4 percentage points in integrated content creation to 0.4 percentage points in advanced spreadsheet use.

Girls also outperformed boys in four specific activities, including photo, video or audio editing, word processing, integrated content creation, and file management tasks.

At the EU level, however, a gender gap remains in coding, with 14.9 per cent of young internet users having written code during the reference period.

Within this figure, 19.8 per cent of boys engaged in coding, compared with 10 per cent of girls, meaning boys’ participation is nearly double overall.

Nevertheless, Cyprus stands apart from this trend, as it is the only member state where girls lead in coding participation.

However, Cyprus’ overall coding participation percentage for the aforementioned age group is lower than the EU average, standing at just 3.84 per cent.

In terms of the gender disparity in Cyprus, Eurostat reported that 2.02 per cent of boys in this age group had written code in a programming language 3 months before the survey took place.

At the same time, the percentage for girls in Cyprus stood at 6.29 per cent, resulting in the island being an outlier among its EU peers.

By contrast, the largest gender gaps in coding were recorded in Portugal at 26.6 percentage points, Belgium at 17.9 percentage points, and Slovakia at 17.4 percentage points.

The smallest differences were observed in Bulgaria at 0.2 percentage points, Latvia at 1.6 percentage points, and Romania at 2.4 percentage points.

The figures highlight both the advances made by young women in digital skills and the ongoing disparities in more advanced technical fields across the European Union.