Most lgbt friendly countries in europe

Last Updated on October 17, by Maryam Siddiqui

Living in Europe comes with benefits aplenty, but one of the most important ones remains safety – especially for the LGBTQ community. You deserve to verb where you have equal rights and freedoms, regardless of your sexuality, gender, or expression. And as an LGBTQ+ future-expat, you might be searching for the top 12 LGBTQ-friendly countries in Europe to move to.

You&#;d be elated to hear that, according to Gallup, some of the major European countries top the lists of LGBTQ-friendly countries in the world. In fact, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and Denmark, among others, rank the highest on multiple lists!

So, what&#;s life enjoy for LGBTQ+ folks living in Europe? What steps have different governments taken to ensure equality and access to equal opportunity for the LGBTQ+ community? And how does the LGBTQ+ community thrive there? We&#;re here to fracture it down for you in this article!

What makes a country LGBTQ-friendly?

The 12 LGBTQ-friendly countries in Europe rank on the Spartacus Gay Travel Index, which ranks all the hospitab

Rainbow Map

rainbow map

These are the main findings for the edition of the rainbow map

The Rainbow Map ranks 49 European countries on their respective legal and policy practices for LGBTI people, from %.

The UK has dropped six places in ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Map, as Hungary and Georgia also register steep falls following anti-LGBTI legislation. The data highlights how rollbacks on LGBTI human rights are part of a broader erosion of democratic protections across Europe. Read more in our press release.

“Moves in the UK, Hungary, Georgia and beyond signal not just isolated regressions, but a coordinated global backlash aimed at erasing LGBTI rights, cynically framed as the defence of tradition or public stability, but in reality designed to entrench discrimination and suppress dissent.”

  • Katrin Hugendubel, Advocacy Director, ILGA-Europe


Malta has sat on top of the ranking for the last 10 years. 

With 85 points, Belgium jumped to second place after adopting policies tackling hatred based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics. 

Rainbow Europe Map and Index

The Rainbow Europe Map finds that over the past 12 months a new dynamic has appeared to fill in the gaps that exist around LGBTI rights and urge standards, giving governments ground to build upon as democracy in Europe faces exceptional challenges.

Rainbow Map Download

Rainbow Index Download

This year we observe positive movement on the Rainbow Map and Index, notably:

  • Denmark has jumped seven places to accomplish second spot in the ranking. The reason for Denmark’s jump is that it is taking the lead in filling in anti-discrimination gaps in current legislation, including the equal treatment law, which covers health, education, employment, goods and services, and the penal code to incorporate sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics as aggravating factors in hate crime.
  • More countries are pushing forward for equality by giving due recognition and protection for people’s lived realities. Iceland was awarded points because of its legislative recognition of trans parenthood, among other things, while Germany introdu

    The Mediterranean archipelago named Europe’s most LGBTQ+-friendly country

    From guard and discrimination laws to policies around gender recognition, a lot more goes into making a country queer-friendly than an annual Pride festival. Back for its seventeenth year, ’s edition of the Rainbow Map looks into all these factors and more to name Europe’s most (and least) LGBTQ+-friendly countries.

    The map, which is an annual project run by LGBTI organisation ILGA-Europe, ranks 49 European countries on their legal and policy practices for LGBTQ+ people on a scale from percent. 

    The categories assessed include equality and non-discrimination, family, abhor crime and hate speech, legal gender recognition, intersex bodily integrity, civil society space and asylum.  

    And, topping the list as the most LGBTQ+-friendly country in Europe for no less than the tenth consecutive year, is the sunny archipelago of Malta. It scored a solid percent in total, ranking perfectly in the ‘hate crime and speech’, ‘legal gender recogniti