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

Chad ranks first with 90.2% of its workforce in vulnerable employment, meaning nine in ten workers are either contributing family workers or own-account workers with no formal employment security. At the other end, Qatar records just 0.46%, the lowest of 186 countries ranked. The 89.8 percentage point gap between them reflects the full spectrum of labour market formality across the world.

Labour category

Ranking 2025

Values shown in %.

Countries by Vulnerable employment, total (% of total employment) (modeled ILO estimate)
Rank	Country	%
1	Chad	90.22
2	Sierra Leone	86.04
3	Madagascar	84.42
4	Ethiopia	84.15
5	Niger	83.73
6	Mozambique	83.68
7	Burundi	83.66
8	Tanzania	83.65
9	Afghanistan	81.77
10	DR Congo	81.51
11	Burkina Faso	80.56
12	South Sudan	80.26
13	Central African Republic	79.42
14	Guinea	79.17
15	Benin	78.53
16	Nepal	76.98
17	Liberia	76.85
18	Laos	76.38
19	Haiti	76.04
20	Republic of Congo	75.89
21	Mali	75.76
22	Togo	75.03
23	Guinea-Bissau	74.94
24	Uganda	74.39
25	India	71.58
26	Papua New Guinea	71.16
27	Zambia	70.17
28	Côte d'Ivoire	69.43
29	Bhutan	69.03
30	Solomon Islands	68.65
31	Zimbabwe	68.21
32	Cameroon	67.56
33	Nigeria	66.48
34	Angola	66.27
35	Kenya	63.83
36	Gambia	63.51
37	Senegal	62.98
38	Myanmar	62.89
39	Bolivia	62.69
40	Ghana	59.96
41	Malawi	59.91
42	Timor-Leste	58.63
43	Moldova	58.62
44	Vanuatu	57.99
45	Bangladesh	57.35
46	Comoros	56.84
47	North Korea	56.77
48	Pakistan	55.51
49	Azerbaijan	53.84
50	Mauritania	53.35
51	Cambodia	52.32
52	Vietnam	51.40
53	Ecuador	50.12
54	Indonesia	49.96
55	Thailand	47.98
56	Eritrea	47.89
57	Peru	47.51
58	Albania	46.03
59	Somalia	45.97
60	Yemen	45.59
61	Colombia	42.96
62	Georgia	42.41
63	Samoa	41.64
64	Sudan	39.67
65	Iran	39.52
66	Rwanda	39.36
67	Sri Lanka	39.24
68	Nicaragua	38.86
69	Syria	38.86
70	Mongolia	38.37
71	Dominican Republic	37.99
72	Panama	37.87
73	Venezuela	37.30
74	Guatemala	36.16
75	Paraguay	36.09
76	Morocco	35.54
77	Sao Tome and Principe	34.99
78	Cabo Verde	34.26
79	Honduras	33.87
80	Tonga	33.70
81	Philippines	33.62
82	China	33.40
83	Uzbekistan	33.32
84	Armenia	32.85
85	Fiji	32.79
86	Lesotho	32.64
87	Jamaica	31.56
88	El Salvador	30.82
89	Djibouti	30.29
90	Namibia	29.94
91	Belize	29.84
92	Gabon	29.81
93	Kyrgyzstan	28.97
94	Eswatini	28.38
95	Turkmenistan	28.27
96	Tajikistan	27.98
97	Iraq	27.14
98	Brazil	26.08
99	Botswana	25.61
100	Algeria	25.56
101	Guyana	25.34
102	Mexico	25.31
103	Kazakhstan	24.79
104	Uruguay	24.37
105	Egypt	23.94
106	Türkiye	23.91
107	Serbia	23.89
108	Costa Rica	23.36
109	Equatorial Guinea	23.08
110	Greece	23.06
111	Argentina	22.27
112	Saint Lucia	21.99
113	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	21.96
114	Malaysia	21.89
115	Libya	21.59
116	Trinidad and Tobago	21.25
117	Chile	20.93
118	Lebanon	19.39
119	Cuba	19.32
120	Ukraine	19.02
121	Barbados	18.80
122	Palestine	18.38
123	Suriname	18.38
124	Bosnia and Herzegovina	18.11
125	Tunisia	17.94
126	South Korea	17.69
127	Maldives	16.91
128	Bahamas	15.94
129	Poland	14.98
130	Mauritius	14.88
131	French Polynesia	14.78
132	Italy	14.35
133	Montenegro	14.28
134	New Caledonia	14.16
135	Czechia	13.50
136	Netherlands	13.42
137	Romania	13.05
138	New Zealand	12.57
139	North Macedonia	12.34
140	Slovakia	11.76
141	Guam	11.75
142	South Africa	11.66
143	United Kingdom	11.53
144	Belgium	11.04
145	Slovenia	10.61
146	Lithuania	10.36
147	Puerto Rico	10.31
148	Spain	10.07
149	Malta	10.07
150	Portugal	9.66
151	Ireland	9.64
152	Switzerland	9.60
153	Canada	9.56
154	Finland	9.46
155	Singapore	9.30
156	Australia	9.12
157	Latvia	8.62
158	France	8.50
159	Iceland	8.40
160	Cyprus	8.38
161	Jordan	7.86
162	Austria	7.85
163	Hungary	7.83
164	Israel	7.70
165	Japan	7.49
166	Estonia	7.09
167	Luxembourg	6.95
168	Bulgaria	6.92
169	Sweden	6.87
170	Croatia	6.35
171	Belarus	6.33
172	Hong Kong	5.76
173	U.S. Virgin Islands	5.47
174	Denmark	5.40
175	Russia	4.93
176	Brunei	4.48
177	Germany	4.34
178	Norway	4.17
179	Oman	3.81
180	United States	3.81
181	Macao	3.33
182	Kuwait	2.40
183	Saudi Arabia	1.66
184	United Arab Emirates	1.50
185	Bahrain	0.75
186	Qatar	0.46

Analysis

Vulnerable employment measures contributing family workers and own-account workers as a percentage of total employment, based on modeled ILO estimates. Workers in these categories typically lack formal contracts, social protection, and stable income. The metric is expressed as a percentage of total employment, where a higher value indicates a greater share of workers in precarious arrangements. This ranking covers 186 countries, with 100% of data points classified as official quality and 97.3% of countries reporting from the latest reference year of 2025. No extreme outliers were detected using a 3-standard-deviation threshold, and average year-over-year change across the dataset is 2.3%, indicating stable trends.

The top of the ranking is dominated by sub-Saharan African nations and a few Asian economies. Chad leads at 90.2%, followed by Sierra Leone at 86.0%, Madagascar at 84.4%, Ethiopia at 84.1%, and Niger at 83.7%. All top 15 countries exceed 78%, and 24 of the top 25 are from sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia. India, ranked 25th at 71.6%, is a notable entry among larger economies. These high shares reflect labour markets where formal wage employment is structurally limited and most workers rely on self-employment or unpaid family labour in agriculture and informal trade.

The middle of the ranking features considerable regional diversity. Ecuador ranks 53rd at 50.1%, straddling the halfway point, while Thailand sits at 55th with 48.0% and Albania at 58th with 46.0%. A counterintuitive placement is Moldova at 43rd with 58.6%, ranking higher than Pakistan (48th, 55.5%) and Bangladesh (45th, 57.3%), despite being a European country. China ranks 82nd at 33.4%, relatively high among upper-middle-income economies. At the lower end, Gulf Cooperation Council states cluster near the bottom: Kuwait ranks 182nd at 2.4%, Saudi Arabia 183rd at 1.7%, the United Arab Emirates 184th at 1.5%, Bahrain 185th at 0.75%, and Qatar last at 0.46%. Major advanced economies such as the United States (180th, 3.8%) and Germany (177th, 4.3%) also rank low.

This metric has several limitations specific to its construction. Because it is a modeled ILO estimate, values for countries with weak statistical systems are derived through imputation rather than direct measurement, which can reduce precision. The indicator does not distinguish between voluntary self-employment and involuntary informal work, so a high rank does not by itself confirm poor working conditions. Seasonal agricultural workers and part-time own-account workers are treated equivalently to full-time informal workers. Comparability across countries may also be affected by differences in how national labour force surveys define contributing family workers and own-account workers. Countries with large agricultural sectors may show structurally high values regardless of broader economic conditions.

Methodology

This ranking is based on the World Bank World Development Indicators indicator SL.EMP.VULN.ZS, with a data year of 2025. The definition used is as follows: vulnerable employment is contributing family workers and own-account workers as a percentage of total employment. Values are modeled ILO estimates expressed as a percentage, where higher values indicate a greater share of the workforce in vulnerable arrangements. The dataset covers 186 countries, all above the 80-country coverage threshold. All 186 countries (100%) have data from within the last seven years, and 100% of data points are classified as official quality, exceeding the 70% threshold. The data year consistency check found 181 of 186 countries (97.3%) reporting in the latest reference year. No extreme outliers were identified using a 3-standard-deviation test. Average year-over-year change is 2.3%, well below the 50% volatility threshold. Values range from 0.46% (Qatar) to 90.22% (Chad), a spread of 19,688%. A key limitation is that modeled estimates for countries with limited survey infrastructure involve imputation and may carry higher uncertainty than direct survey-based figures.

Sources

World Bank