Countries by Employment in industry, female (% of female employment) (modeled ILO estimate)

Ranking 2025

Values shown in %.

Analysis

This metric measures the share of female employment accounted for by the industry sector, expressed as a percentage of total female employment. According to the World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator code SL.IND.EMPL.FE.ZS), employment is defined as persons of working age who were engaged in any activity to produce goods or provide services for pay or profit, whether at work during the reference period or not at work due to temporary absence from a job, or to working-time arrangement. The industry sector consists of mining and quarrying, manufacturing, construction, and public utilities (electricity, gas, and water). The dataset covers 186 countries, all with data from within the last 7 years, and 100% of datapoints are classified as official quality. The ranking year is 2025. Statistical review identified 26 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold, and the overall range runs from 0.55% to 35.71%, a spread of over 6,399%.

Lesotho leads at 35.71% (rank 1), followed by Tunisia at 31.77% (rank 2) and Viet Nam at 30.93% (rank 3). Tonga (rank 4, 26.91%) and Cambodia (rank 5, 25.77%) complete the top five. Several middle-income and transition economies cluster in the top 20, including Iran at 25.25% (rank 6), China at 24.80% (rank 7), Algeria at 24.57% (rank 8), North Macedonia at 24.44% (rank 9), and Sri Lanka at 24.14% (rank 10). European economies with historically manufacturing-heavy labor markets also appear near the top, with Czechia at 20.93% (rank 16), the Slovak Republic at 19.79% (rank 20), Bulgaria at 19.58% (rank 21), and Romania at 22.06% (rank 12).

Several high-income economies rank in the middle or lower portions of the table. Germany ranks 64th at 12.85%, the United States ranks 120th at 8.25%, and the United Kingdom ranks 138th at 7.22%. Luxembourg, a high-income economy, ranks 180th at just 2.21%. Among large developing economies, India ranks 40th at 16.14% and Brazil ranks 88th at 10.49%. A notable anomaly appears with the Netherlands at rank 157 (5.51%), placing it below many lower-income economies. Hong Kong SAR, China (rank 168, 4.26%) and Macao SAR, China (rank 173, 3.62%) rank near the bottom despite being high-income economies, reflecting service-sector-dominant labor markets. The bottom five are Angola (1.70%), Timor-Leste (1.42%), South Sudan (1.31%), Mozambique (1.19%), and Djibouti (0.85%), with Burundi last at 0.55%.

This metric captures only the sectoral share of female employment and does not reflect absolute numbers of women employed, employment quality, hours worked, wages, or informality within the industrial sector. Countries with large informal sectors may underreport female industrial employment, which can depress measured values independently of actual labor participation. The ILO modeled estimates are produced using statistical methods to fill gaps where direct survey data are limited, meaning reported figures may not correspond to a single national survey year. Comparability across countries can be affected by differences in national definitions of employment and industrial classification. The presence of 26 extreme outliers flagged at the 3-sigma threshold signals that some values sit far outside the cross-country norm and should be interpreted with caution.

Methodology

Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code SL.IND.EMPL.FE.ZS, with a reference year of 2025. The metric is a modeled ILO estimate. Employment is defined as persons of working age who were engaged in any activity to produce goods or provide services for pay or profit, whether at work during the reference period or not at work due to temporary absence from a job, or to working-time arrangement. The industry sector consists of mining and quarrying, manufacturing, construction, and public utilities (electricity, gas, and water). The ranking covers 186 countries, all of which have data from within the last 7 years (100% recency). All 186 datapoints are classified as official quality (100%). The data year is 2025, with 181 of 186 countries (97.3%) reporting in the latest year. The value range is 0.55% to 35.71%, representing a 6,399% spread. Viability checks identified 26 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold. Average year-over-year change is 4.2%, within the 50% volatility threshold. No microstates are included in this dataset.

Sources

• World Bank