A recent analysis by online home rental company Spotahome has unveiled Ireland as the 14th best city for overall equality in Europe. Room for improvement is needed in terms of Ireland’s European ranking for LGBTI friendliness and a number of other key categories such as quality of life and political issues.

Ireland’s highest score came for immigrant acceptance, meaning it ranks 3rd for immigrant acceptance of all countries analysed. The only two countries found to be more accepting are Iceland (10.00) and Sweden (9.50).

Ireland itself ranks a respectable 12th for overall equality in Europe, beating the UK which comes a close 13th. It also scores highly for political rights and civil liberties (9.55) and male vs female labour force participation (7.03).

The country ranks as 9th in Europe for gender pay equality, scoring 6.07. While this score is positive, it still shows there is some way to go before the gap is closed.

While not at the bottom of the results table for categories like LGBTI friendliness (5.66) and overall quality of life (6.64), the study shows there’s room for improvement.

On a city level, Dublin scored top marks for wheelchair access (10.00) but didn’t rank as well for women in politics (0.83), women in Fortune 500 companies (2.86) and overall quality of life (4.57).

In terms of LGBTI friendliness, Dublin was the only Irish city indexed as part of the analysis and it ranked in 24th position out of a possible 33. However, Dublin fares much better than London, which has the lowest equality score out of all major UK cities analysed. It is also the second lowest scoring city in Europe due to its declining number of women representatives in politics (1.25) and overall quality of life (2.59).

Melissa Lyras, Brand and Communications Manager at Spotahome commented on the findings:

“Many of our customers are looking to move within Europe, so we have analysed data from European cities about the key issues which matter most to them, which will help them decide the best areas suited to their personal needs and values.

“While it’s hopeful to see steps being taken to enhance wheelchair access and political rights, it’s evident Ireland should continue tackling concerns around the declining number of women in politics, LGBTI friendliness and overall quality of life to improve equality across the country further.”

See the full data for each city and country here.