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

Djibouti leads all 186 countries ranked by employment in services as a share of total employment, with 92.2% of its workforce in the services sector. At the other end, Burundi records just 11.6%, producing a gap of more than 80 percentage points between the top and bottom. That spread reflects the wide range of economic structures captured across this dataset.

Labour category

Ranking 2025

Values shown in %.

Countries by Employment in services (% of total employment) (modeled ILO estimate)
Rank	Country	%
1	Djibouti	92.17
2	Luxembourg	91.48
3	Macao	88.63
4	Singapore	85.91
5	Hong Kong	85.80
6	Netherlands	84.54
7	Bahamas	84.44
8	Puerto Rico	84.14
9	Israel	84.09
10	French Polynesia	83.75
11	United Kingdom	83.23
12	Barbados	82.58
13	U.S. Virgin Islands	81.86
14	Cyprus	81.58
15	Sweden	81.41
16	Malta	81.39
17	Jordan	80.76
18	Canada	80.15
19	Belgium	79.77
20	Norway	79.66
21	Denmark	79.57
22	United States	79.56
23	Guam	79.18
24	Australia	78.53
25	Brunei	78.41
26	France	78.33
27	Switzerland	78.17
28	Iceland	78.15
29	Ireland	77.93
30	Montenegro	77.58
31	New Caledonia	77.57
32	Spain	76.77
33	Lebanon	76.36
34	Saint Lucia	76.32
35	Finland	75.67
36	Mauritius	74.67
37	New Zealand	74.64
38	Saudi Arabia	74.43
39	Venezuela	74.37
40	Dominican Republic	74.02
41	Japan	73.96
42	South Africa	73.83
43	Kuwait	73.50
44	Uruguay	73.15
45	Greece	73.01
46	Germany	72.95
47	Portugal	72.67
48	Austria	72.59
49	Chile	72.43
50	Brazil	72.16
51	Argentina	71.81
52	Maldives	71.77
53	South Korea	71.51
54	Latvia	71.50
55	Libya	71.38
56	Trinidad and Tobago	71.32
57	Estonia	71.05
58	Italy	70.23
59	Costa Rica	70.03
60	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	69.79
61	Lithuania	69.44
62	Croatia	69.31
63	Russia	69.06
64	Jamaica	68.93
65	Kazakhstan	68.79
66	Belize	68.52
67	United Arab Emirates	67.97
68	Cabo Verde	67.69
69	Cuba	67.56
70	Bulgaria	67.43
71	Panama	66.95
72	Suriname	66.92
73	Botswana	66.20
74	Colombia	65.84
75	Sao Tome and Principe	65.42
76	Hungary	65.35
77	Iraq	65.30
78	Paraguay	65.08
79	Malaysia	64.86
80	Slovenia	64.37
81	Bahrain	64.26
82	Mexico	64.08
83	Palestine	63.78
84	Poland	63.75
85	Slovakia	63.31
86	El Salvador	63.01
87	Czechia	62.40
88	Namibia	61.11
89	North Macedonia	60.87
90	Ukraine	60.67
91	Qatar	60.36
92	Peru	60.08
93	Philippines	59.55
94	Belarus	59.46
95	Eswatini	58.72
96	Syria	58.50
97	Türkiye	58.49
98	Algeria	58.25
99	Kyrgyzstan	57.73
100	Yemen	57.25
101	Samoa	57.18
102	Guyana	56.69
103	Romania	56.48
104	Honduras	55.94
105	Bolivia	55.49
106	Papua New Guinea	55.27
107	Serbia	54.90
108	Oman	54.62
109	Tunisia	54.26
110	Gambia	53.64
111	Egypt	53.12
112	Tonga	53.05
113	Mauritania	52.83
114	Bosnia and Herzegovina	52.69
115	Nicaragua	52.65
116	Gabon	52.28
117	Somalia	52.22
118	Armenia	51.73
119	Fiji	51.71
120	Iran	51.67
121	Comoros	51.65
122	Ecuador	50.93
123	Liberia	50.53
124	Azerbaijan	50.24
125	Uzbekistan	50.19
126	Timor-Leste	50.18
127	Indonesia	50.17
128	Solomon Islands	49.95
129	Mongolia	49.91
130	Turkmenistan	49.50
131	Georgia	49.48
132	Nigeria	49.46
133	Thailand	49.21
134	Morocco	48.27
135	Guatemala	48.23
136	Senegal	47.92
137	Sri Lanka	47.84
138	Albania	47.24
139	Ghana	47.17
140	Rwanda	46.54
141	China	46.53
142	Sudan	46.24
143	Nepal	45.81
144	Vanuatu	45.43
145	Haiti	44.59
146	Togo	44.25
147	Republic of Congo	44.17
148	Sierra Leone	44.04
149	Cameroon	43.53
150	Bhutan	41.75
151	Kenya	41.73
152	Benin	41.44
153	Angola	40.85
154	Côte d'Ivoire	40.30
155	Vietnam	40.13
156	Tajikistan	39.07
157	Pakistan	38.51
158	Guinea	38.49
159	Cambodia	37.72
160	Bangladesh	37.71
161	Moldova	36.94
162	Myanmar	36.89
163	Lesotho	36.09
164	Zambia	35.19
165	Equatorial Guinea	34.75
166	South Sudan	34.57
167	Zimbabwe	34.16
168	DR Congo	33.45
169	Ethiopia	33.41
170	India	32.56
171	Eritrea	31.78
172	Burkina Faso	31.56
173	Afghanistan	29.47
174	Guinea-Bissau	29.21
175	Mali	28.40
176	Uganda	27.85
177	Malawi	27.68
178	Tanzania	27.32
179	Laos	23.99
180	North Korea	23.51
181	Madagascar	20.89
182	Mozambique	20.55
183	Central African Republic	20.55
184	Chad	19.76
185	Niger	17.74
186	Burundi	11.56

Analysis

This metric measures the share of total employment accounted for by the services sector, expressed as a percentage. Employment in services covers wholesale and retail trade and restaurants and hotels; transport, storage, and communications; financing, and related activities, as defined by the World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator code SL.SRV.EMPL.ZS). Employment itself 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 dataset covers 186 countries, all with data from the last seven years, and 100% of datapoints are classified as official-quality estimates. The average year-over-year change is 1.4%, indicating stable trends across the panel.

The top of the ranking is dominated by small, trade-oriented, or heavily urbanized economies. Djibouti ranks first at 92.2%, followed by Luxembourg at 91.5% (rank 2) and Macao SAR, China at 88.6% (rank 3). Singapore (rank 4, 85.9%) and Hong Kong SAR, China (rank 5, 85.8%) sit just below. Among larger economies, the Netherlands ranks 6th at 84.5%, the United Kingdom 11th at 83.2%, and the United States 22nd at 79.6%. These countries share highly urbanized populations and economies oriented toward finance, trade, and professional services.

The middle of the ranking includes a wide mix of emerging economies and transition states. Russia ranks 63rd at 69.1%, Kazakhstan 65th at 68.8%, and the Philippines 93rd at 59.5%. China ranks 141st at just 46.5%, a notably low figure for the world's second-largest economy, reflecting the continued weight of manufacturing and agriculture in its employment structure. North Korea appears near the bottom at rank 180 with 23.5%, one of the few countries where services employ fewer than a quarter of workers. Sub-Saharan African countries occupy most of the bottom 20 positions, with Niger at rank 185 (17.7%) and Burundi last at 11.6%.

Several limitations apply to this metric. The modeled ILO estimates used here are derived rather than directly measured for all countries, which introduces uncertainty, particularly for nations with limited statistical capacity. Informal sector employment, which is large in many lower-ranked countries, may be inconsistently captured or attributed across sectors. Country boundaries between services, agriculture, and industry can vary in national reporting, affecting cross-country comparability. Territories such as Puerto Rico (US), Guam, Virgin Islands (U.S.), and Macao SAR, China are included alongside sovereign states, which can affect interpretation of regional patterns.

Methodology

Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code SL.SRV.EMPL.ZS, with a reference year of 2025. The metric reports employment in services as a percentage of total employment, using modeled ILO estimates. The source definition states: '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 dataset covers 186 countries, all passing the 80-country coverage threshold. All 186 countries (100%) have data from within the last seven years, and 100% of datapoints meet the official data quality threshold (threshold: 70%). No extreme outliers were identified at the 3-sigma level. The average year-over-year change is 1.4%, well within the 50% volatility threshold. Values range from 11.6% (Burundi) to 92.2% (Djibouti), a spread of 697.6%. Data for 181 of 186 countries (97.3%) are from the latest reference year.

Sources

World Bank