@vizdale - Tumblr Blog

Women on Emmerdale are disappearing: The data with graphs

With the news of Olivia Bromley (Dawn Fletcher) being axed, what's a better time than this to show in sheer numbers the degradation of the presence of women on Emmerdale in the last two years.

The above graph maps the ratio of women to men in the main cast since the show started airing in 1972 (shortened to "female ratio"). A ratio of 1.00 means there is an equal number of women to men in the main cast that year. A ratio of 0.50 means there are half as many women as men.

Accounting for exits and absentees, 2026 is projecting to have a female ratio of 0.62. This is the lowest female ratio the show has had since 1990 — when the show was just climbing up from a sub-0.50 ratio.

This post is a thorough data study of the presence of women in the Emmerdale main cast from the show's inception to today. I also look into the minor cast and intersecting identities of race and sexuality.

Summary: Though the presence of women has steadily improved through time, the last ten, five and two years have each seen a marked breakdown in the female cast count. Women appear less and less on the cast list year to year. Women of colour and queer women are constantly less present than their male counterparts and see less improvement.

The numbers are clear: women on Emmerdale are losing their presence. If 2026 does not make up for absent female cast members, it is going to be at the worst point it's been at in almost 4 decades.

More about the female ratio

Until the 90s, women were hugely underrepresented. The lowest point was in 1983 with a ratio of 0.24 (4 women to 17 men). The first time women and men were equally present was in 1994 (20:20). Between 1998 and 2024, 26 years, the ratio fluctuated between 0.80 and 1.16, with an average of 0.97. Then in 2025, with the exit of 7 women (including the Valentine's crash that exclusively fridged 3 women), the ratio reached a low of 0.76 (31:41). This follows a downward trend since 2015, though the ratio only hit under 0.85 in 2022. It recovered to 0.97 in 2024 then sank. The last time the ratio was below 0.80 was in 1996. The table below, sorted by increasing female ratio, shows how 2025 and 2026 rank.

The graph below shows the changes in female vs male cast count year to year, including the 2026 projection. There have always been fluctuations for both men and women (note that men and women trade increases and decreases) but there has never been a decrease as extreme and as consistent as the female cast count experienced in the last two years.

Note on projection: Exits and absentees

The 2026 projection counts exits, incoming exits, absent characters, and inactive characters that are still considered main cast (non-minor characters) by the Emmerdale wiki. Absent characters are actors on break who took a temporary leave, while inactive characters are those still considered in the cast but haven't showed up in over a year. Below is a table of the characters that count. So far in 2026, 7 women and 4 men are or will be off the show.

Note that cast counts of other years do not take into account absent & inactive characters. I do not believe this majorly impacts the general trends. I include absent characters in the 2026 projection to show the status of the show at present. Even if every "absent" character returned, male and female, the female to male ratio would still only be 0.71.

Minor characters

If the show can't hire new main cast, they can pad out the minor cast with important female characters. The graph below compares counts of male minor characters and female minor characters (>14 appearances). Only 7 years had equal distribution or a female majority (16 years had a male advantage of only 1; 26 years had a male advantage greater than 2).

The following table lists the minor characters who appeared on the show in the 2020s. 8 women vs 18 men. In the 2020s, only 31% of significant minor characters on Emmerdale were women.

Intersectionality: Race and Sexuality

It is almost unnecessary to crack the numbers on the race distribution of this show. You watch it and you know there is an overwhelming majority of white people. They tried to rectify the issue in the 2020s and failed, but that's another post...

Below are two graphs that analyze female presence in the main cast by race. Instead of years, these graphs group characters by appearance in decade. Note that the 2020s have 4 more years to go, so characters counts for that decade are not complete. The first graph splits the POC (people of colour, i.e. non-white) cast by gender. Though POC count increased decade to decade for all genders, men of colour appeared more. The second graph splits the female main cast by race. White women decreased from the 2000s to 10s but women of color increased... by a count of 2. So far, the 2020s has had an addition of one woman of colour.

In terms of sexuality, the following graphs show that as queer male counts increased, queer female counts have remained the same since the 90s. The 2000s saw a jump from 3 to 9 new queer male characters (+6), increasing to 12 by the 2020s. There have been 5-6 queer female characters every decade. There has only ever been one trans character on the show, a trans man introduced in 2010 then reintroduced post-transition in 2018. He remains on the show.

(Note that the data classifies sexuality from first appearance, not coming out. So for example, Zoe Tate and Robert Sugden are classified as the 2 queer characters in the 80s despite coming out in 1993 and 2014 respectively).

Conclusion

Further study is needed. There is a very important side of this issue that this post doesn't get into: the substance and screentime of female characters who are on the show. Just based on observation, I can tell there has been a marked decrease in women scene-to-scene, storylines with multiple women, presence of key female characters, and deep focus on women's issues. From my experience, these are common complaints online. In fact, even the show is aware of this, pointing out a lack of women at a party in its Nov 18, 2025 episode.

It is vital we study the numbers from every angle. Looking at the numbers I have laid out, there is an obvious and distressing decrease in female presence on Emmerdale from the cast count alone. We are well aware that Emmerdale, like other soap operas and network television in general, needs to re-strategize to adjust to budget constraints, audience reception, television conditions, and the constant evolution of the show. However, the show must balance female presence in creative ways if it can't financially.

Final notes

This study was entirely done by me. I imported cast information from the Emmerdale wiki and assigned character demographics (gender, race, sexuality) by hand. Main cast is determined by characters on this page; minor cast is determined by characters on these pages with 15 appearances or more. The data was compiled, analyzed, and visualised on Google Sheets.

If you notice an error, please let me know and it will be rectified as soon as I can. Though I have checked the data multiple times, it is still liable to have mistakes. I am an amateur data analyst; the data is unreviewed outside myself.

If you have questions or if you want certain data analyzed, please message me and I will try my best to help you. I am open to being reached through replies, reblogs, DMs, or my askbox.

If you want to use this data elsewhere (news, reposts), please let me know and credit me at vizdale.tumblr.com.

Posted: March 30, 2026

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs