Where is gay marriage legal?
Around the world 23 nations allow gay marriage – either nationally or in the case of Mexico, in some jurisdictions. In the UK, gay marriage is devolved to national parliaments, so is only legal in England, Wales and Scotland.
The following map shows the countries around the world that allow same-sex couples to marry, with data taken from the Pew Research Center.
As the map highlights, countries where same-sex marriage is legal are found predominantly in the Americas and Europe, with South Africa and New Zealand being the only exceptions.
The first nation to legalise gay marriage was the Netherlands in 2000. Gay marriage will become legal in Finland from 2017 through a bill passed this year.
To keep up with the Agenda subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Author: Joe Myers is a Digital Content Producer at Formative Content.
Image: Participants hold a giant rainbow flag during the Brussels LGBT Pride Parade May 17, 2014. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
Don't miss any update on this topic
Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.
License and Republishing
World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.
Stay up to date:
Gender Inequality
Forum Stories newsletter
Bringing you weekly curated insights and analysis on the global issues that matter.
