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

Djibouti ranks first globally, with 98.2% of employed women working in the services sector, according to 2025 World Bank modeled ILO estimates. At the other end, Afghanistan sits last at 3.7%, yielding a gap of nearly 95 percentage points between the two countries. This spread reflects the wide variation in how female labor is distributed across sectors worldwide.

Labour category

Ranking 2025

Values shown in %.

Countries by Employment in services, female (% of female employment) (modeled ILO estimate)
Rank	Country	%
1	Djibouti	98.25
2	Luxembourg	97.20
3	Qatar	96.14
4	Macao	96.05
5	Bahamas	95.68
6	Hong Kong	95.63
7	French Polynesia	94.52
8	Cyprus	93.45
9	Netherlands	93.38
10	Jordan	93.33
11	Kuwait	93.13
12	Israel	92.82
13	Lebanon	92.40
14	U.S. Virgin Islands	92.34
15	United Kingdom	92.31
16	Barbados	92.30
17	Sweden	92.15
18	Puerto Rico	91.86
19	Norway	91.79
20	Malta	91.76
21	Saint Lucia	91.72
22	Bahrain	91.47
23	Belgium	91.34
24	United Arab Emirates	91.25
25	Guam	91.08
26	New Caledonia	90.97
27	Iceland	90.94
28	United States	90.79
29	Dominican Republic	90.78
30	Canada	90.69
31	Australia	90.40
32	Denmark	90.10
33	Singapore	90.03
34	Ireland	89.62
35	Finland	89.50
36	Saudi Arabia	89.46
37	France	88.96
38	Spain	88.95
39	Libya	88.94
40	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	88.87
41	Switzerland	88.72
42	Montenegro	88.35
43	Brunei	88.02
44	Uruguay	87.65
45	Argentina	86.72
46	Venezuela	86.62
47	Germany	86.44
48	New Zealand	86.38
49	Chile	86.32
50	Brazil	86.31
51	Jamaica	86.30
52	Austria	85.76
53	Mauritius	85.55
54	Belize	85.50
55	Syria	85.24
56	Estonia	84.90
57	South Africa	84.61
58	Latvia	84.51
59	Italy	84.47
60	Japan	84.28
61	Trinidad and Tobago	83.89
62	Cabo Verde	83.80
63	Suriname	83.76
64	Oman	83.70
65	Botswana	83.68
66	South Korea	83.47
67	Portugal	83.07
68	Palestine	82.86
69	Cuba	82.75
70	Greece	82.58
71	Croatia	82.57
72	Russia	82.36
73	Costa Rica	82.12
74	Lithuania	81.80
75	Colombia	80.84
76	Paraguay	80.71
77	Panama	79.90
78	El Salvador	79.73
79	Kazakhstan	79.39
80	Slovakia	79.30
81	Hungary	79.10
82	Mexico	78.50
83	Honduras	78.48
84	Poland	78.47
85	Slovenia	78.42
86	Guyana	78.23
87	Nicaragua	78.13
88	Bulgaria	77.74
89	Malaysia	77.62
90	Czechia	77.47
91	Philippines	77.43
92	Iraq	74.46
93	Ukraine	74.10
94	Belarus	74.03
95	Samoa	73.97
96	Egypt	73.71
97	Algeria	71.61
98	Namibia	70.91
99	Romania	69.54
100	Maldives	69.51
101	Peru	69.08
102	North Macedonia	67.97
103	Kyrgyzstan	67.71
104	Sao Tome and Principe	67.60
105	Eswatini	66.25
106	Guatemala	65.46
107	Gabon	65.35
108	Türkiye	64.48
109	Serbia	63.73
110	Bolivia	63.27
111	Haiti	62.92
112	Bosnia and Herzegovina	62.78
113	Iran	62.04
114	Mongolia	61.46
115	Mauritania	60.49
116	Tonga	60.42
117	Ecuador	60.16
118	Nigeria	59.90
119	Tunisia	59.85
120	Armenia	58.89
121	Papua New Guinea	58.70
122	Indonesia	58.66
123	Senegal	58.66
124	Turkmenistan	58.38
125	Uzbekistan	57.67
126	Fiji	57.38
127	China	56.52
128	Thailand	56.29
129	Gambia	56.15
130	Ghana	55.95
131	Georgia	55.57
132	Comoros	55.48
133	Azerbaijan	54.14
134	Solomon Islands	53.15
135	Liberia	51.86
136	Timor-Leste	51.85
137	Somalia	50.89
138	Sierra Leone	49.98
139	Sri Lanka	49.89
140	Vanuatu	49.39
141	Albania	48.01
142	Benin	47.20
143	Sudan	46.98
144	Rwanda	46.62
145	Nepal	46.55
146	Côte d'Ivoire	46.40
147	Morocco	46.08
148	Togo	45.50
149	Ethiopia	45.14
150	Republic of Congo	45.10
151	Yemen	44.98
152	Vietnam	44.65
153	Lesotho	44.47
154	Myanmar	44.41
155	Cameroon	43.15
156	Angola	42.36
157	Kenya	42.13
158	Guinea	41.25
159	Moldova	41.10
160	Equatorial Guinea	39.24
161	Cambodia	38.62
162	Zambia	38.39
163	Bhutan	37.98
164	Zimbabwe	35.42
165	Eritrea	34.63
166	South Sudan	33.28
167	Burkina Faso	31.74
168	Tajikistan	31.73
169	Mali	31.54
170	Tanzania	29.04
171	DR Congo	28.24
172	Guinea-Bissau	27.15
173	Laos	25.88
174	Uganda	25.64
175	Malawi	24.18
176	India	24.03
177	Madagascar	22.43
178	North Korea	21.77
179	Central African Republic	19.36
180	Chad	19.35
181	Pakistan	18.82
182	Mozambique	16.98
183	Bangladesh	16.34
184	Niger	10.28
185	Burundi	6.32
186	Afghanistan	3.74

Analysis

This metric measures the share of female employment accounted for by the services sector, expressed as a percentage of total female employment. 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 services sector consists of wholesale and retail trade and restaurants and hotels; transport, storage, and communications; financing, and related activities. The unit is percentage (%), and higher values indicate a greater concentration of employed women in services. The dataset covers 186 countries, all with data from the last seven years, and 100% of datapoints are classified as official quality. No extreme outliers were identified using a 3-standard-deviation threshold.

The top of the ranking is dominated by small, trade- and finance-oriented economies alongside high-income service economies. Djibouti leads at 98.2% (rank 1), followed by Luxembourg at 97.2% (rank 2) and Qatar at 96.1% (rank 3). Macao SAR, China (96.0%, rank 4) and The Bahamas (95.7%, rank 5) round out the top five. Among larger economies, the United Kingdom sits at rank 15 with 92.3%, the United States at rank 28 with 90.8%, and Germany at rank 47 with 86.4%. These placements reflect economies where agriculture and industry account for relatively small shares of female employment.

The middle of the ranking shows substantial variation. The Philippines ranks 91st at 77.4%, while Romania sits at rank 99 with 69.5%. A notable anomaly is Iraq at rank 92 with 74.5%, placing it above several Eastern European countries despite differing economic structures. India ranks 176th at just 24.0%, a striking placement for the world's most populous country, indicating that large shares of employed women there work outside services. Viet Nam (rank 152, 44.7%), Bangladesh (rank 183, 16.3%), and Niger (rank 184, 10.3%) also sit near the bottom, while North Korea appears at rank 178 with 21.8%.

Several data limitations apply to this metric. The estimates are modeled ILO figures, meaning they are not all derived from direct national surveys and may reflect interpolation or imputation for countries with limited data collection capacity. The services sector definition used here may not capture all informal service work, which is particularly prevalent among women in lower-income countries and can distort rankings downward. Countries with high agricultural female employment will mechanically score lower, so a low rank does not necessarily indicate poor labor market conditions. The consistency check shows 181 of 186 countries report data for the latest year, leaving five countries with slightly older reference points.

Methodology

The metric is Female Employment in Services as a percentage of female employment (modeled ILO estimate), sourced from the World Bank World Development Indicators under indicator code SL.SRV.EMPL.FE.ZS. Data year is 2025. 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 services sector consists of wholesale and retail trade and restaurants and hotels; transport, storage, and communications; financing, and related activities. The ranking covers 186 countries, all meeting the recency threshold of data within the last seven years. Data quality is 100% official. No extreme outliers were detected at the 3-standard-deviation threshold. Average year-over-year change is 1.7%, indicating low volatility. The value range runs from 3.74% (Afghanistan) to 98.25% (Djibouti), a spread of 2,525%. Estimates are modeled and may not reflect direct survey data in all cases.

Sources

World Bank