The UK is only the 19th best country in the world for women to live in, according to a new study.
Norway is ranked first on the 2019 Women's Liveability Index compiled by accommodation website Nestpick for International Women's Day.
According to Nestpick, the Women's Liveability Index ranks 100 countries worldwide using a variety of factors relevant to women, including domestic violence rates, female life expectancy and female literacy rates.
The gender pay gap and percentage of women in government and high-ranking executive positions are factored in, too, as are and tax rates on female sanitary products and the legality of abortion.
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Also taken into account are the country's divorce laws, rates of human trafficking and percentage of women at risk of period poverty.
Norway ranks first overall thanks to its high safety, health and education scores, high overall living standards and the strongest equality legislation of any country globally.
The Scandinavian nation has a gender pay gap of just 7.1% – considerably below the UK's 17.9%. Some 40.2% of government positions in Norway are filled by women, compared to just 31.50% in the UK.
Sweden is ranked second on the index, followed by Canada in third. Ireland places a very creditable seventh, helped in part by a strong abortion legality score following last year's historic referendum result. At 10.6%, Ireland's gender pay gap also compares very favourably to the UK's.
Finland, which places fourth overall, gives women the most number of parental leave days – 1162, compared to 273 in the UK and 182 in Ireland.
At the other end of index, Nigeria is ranked worst for women, followed by Ethiopia, Pakistan, Uganda and Mozambique.
"With more and more women moving abroad than ever before, we wanted to create a resource that would help women to better understand the potential quality of life in different countries around the world," said Nestpick's Managing Director, Ömer Kücükdere.
"While the results also include countries which have some way to go in order to improve living standards for women, this index ought to act as a positive springboard for those nations to see how they could improve their advocacy and actions to advance living standards for women in these countries."
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The top ten countries for women, according to the Women's Liveability Index:
1. Norway
2. Sweden
3. Canada
4. Finland
5. Iceland
6. Denmark
7. Ireland
8. Slovenia
9. Austria
10. Estonia
Check out the full index here.
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