Countries by Vulnerable employment, female (% of female employment) (modeled ILO estimate)

Ranking 2025

Values shown in %.

Analysis

This metric measures vulnerable employment among women as a share of total female employment, using modeled ILO estimates. Per the source definition, vulnerable employment is contributing family workers and own-account workers as a percentage of total employment. These are workers typically without formal contracts, employer-provided benefits, or stable wage arrangements. The indicator (SL.EMP.VULN.FE.ZS) is expressed as a percentage, and a higher value means a larger share of women are in precarious work arrangements. The dataset covers 186 countries, all with data from the last seven years, with 100% of datapoints rated as official quality. No extreme outliers were detected at the 3-sigma threshold, and average year-over-year change is 2.9%, indicating stable underlying trends.

The top of the ranking is concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Chad leads at 96.2% (rank 1), followed by Niger at 93.2% (rank 2) and Afghanistan at 92.9% (rank 3). Sierra Leone (91.3%, rank 4), Mozambique (90.7%, rank 5), Nepal (90.3%, rank 6), and Burundi (90.0%, rank 7) also exceed 89%. Thirteen of the top 20 countries are in sub-Saharan Africa. In these economies, formal wage employment for women is limited, and a large proportion of female workers are in agriculture or household-based activities that fall under the contributing family worker or own-account categories.

The middle of the ranking shows considerable variation. Moldova ranks 51st at 59.4%, sitting alongside Ecuador (59.2%, rank 52) and Indonesia (58.5%, rank 53). India ranks 33rd at 78.2%, placing it closer to the top of the ranking than the middle. Among high-income economies, South Korea ranks 120th at 16.2%, while Italy ranks 128th at 11.8%. A notable anomaly is Moldova (rank 51, 59.4%), which ranks higher in vulnerable female employment than several lower-income economies and considerably higher than neighboring European countries such as Ukraine (rank 118, 18.2%) and Romania (rank 135, 10.3%). At the lower end, Gulf states dominate: Jordan ranks 183rd at 2.1%, Qatar 184th at 0.72%, Kuwait 185th at 0.66%, and Bahrain last at 0.62%.

This metric has several limitations. Modeled ILO estimates involve statistical imputation for countries with limited survey data, which can introduce uncertainty, particularly for smaller or conflict-affected nations. The metric counts own-account workers and contributing family workers as inherently vulnerable, but does not distinguish between workers who are in these categories by necessity versus by choice. It also does not capture the quality or earnings of formal employment. Cross-country comparisons are affected by differences in how national surveys define and record employment categories. Countries with large informal economies may have inconsistent classification of work types, which can distort rankings.

Methodology

Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code SL.EMP.VULN.FE.ZS, with a reference year of 2025. The metric is defined as: vulnerable employment is contributing family workers and own-account workers as a percentage of total employment. Estimates are modeled ILO figures. 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 are classified as official quality, exceeding the 70% threshold. No extreme outliers were identified at the 3-sigma level. The average year-over-year change across the dataset is 2.9%, well below the 50% volatility threshold. Values range from 0.62% (Bahrain) to 96.20% (Chad), a spread of 15,409.6%. Data for 181 of 186 countries are from the latest reference year, giving 97.3% consistency. No microstates (populations under 1 million) are present in the dataset.

Sources

• World Bank