Despite new intake, Britain has fewer female MPs than Burundi

Despite an increase of 7% following last week's election, the UK still has a smaller proportion of female MPs than Burundi and lags behind its European neighbours such as Germany and Sweden.

A total of 187 women were elected in the general election, with the bulk coming from the opposition Labour party. Out of its 232 seats, 100 are occupied by women.

In total, 29% of MPs in the British parliament are female compared to 22% after the 2010 elections. In Burundi, which has one of the lowest GDP per capita rates in the world, women make up 30.5% of the lower house.

In Europe, Sweden leads the way in terms of female representation, with 44% of its MPs being women. Spain has 144 female MPs, constituting 41% of the total, while 230 of the 631 parliamentarians in the German Bundestag are women.

The UK general election produced a surprise result, with David Cameron's Conservative party winning an outright majority of 331 seats after pollsters predicted a hung parliament.

However, just 64 Conservative MPs are female, which works out at less than one-fifth of the party's total seats.

Almost a third of MPs from the Scottish National Party, which exceeded all expectations by winning 56 seats, are women.

Belinda Phipps, chair of the Fawcett Society, which campaigns for for gender equality in the UK, welcomed the outcome but highlighted the slight nature of the increase.

She said: "We are really pleased that there has been an increase, albeit a small increase, in women MPs in the House of Commons. We know that when women are part of the legislative and decision-making process, better decisions are made."

After last week's result, the UK slots into 37th place between Nepal, where 29.4% of MPs are women, and Trinidad and Tobago, where women make up 28.6% of the lower house.

Rwanda has the highest proportion of female MPs in the world, with women holding 64% of the parliamentary seats following the 2013 elections. A number of states, including Yemen and Qatar, do not have a single female MP.