Children in employment, work only (% of children in employment, ages 7-14) - Country Ranking

Definition: Children in employment refer to children involved in economic activity for at least one hour in the reference week of the survey. Work only refers to children involved in economic activity and not attending school.

Source: Understanding Children's Work project based on data from ILO, UNICEF and the World Bank.

See also: Thematic map, Time series comparison

Find indicator:
Rank Country Value Year
1 Lao PDR 89.35 2010
2 Pakistan 87.45 2011
3 Morocco 84.50 2004
4 India 82.50 2012
5 Lesotho 74.40 2002
6 Bangladesh 58.07 2013
7 Burkina Faso 56.83 2010
8 The Gambia 56.63 2015
9 Egypt 55.00 2009
10 Mali 54.80 2013
11 Niger 54.50 2012
12 Somalia 53.50 2006
13 Afghanistan 50.00 2011
14 Guinea 49.50 2012
15 Chad 49.27 2015
16 Senegal 44.74 2015
17 Indonesia 44.40 2010
18 Mauritania 43.71 2011
19 Honduras 41.75 2014
20 Côte d'Ivoire 41.15 2012
21 Madagascar 40.90 2007
22 Guatemala 38.97 2015
23 Turkey 38.80 2006
24 Timor-Leste 36.60 2007
25 Yemen 35.97 2010
26 Ethiopia 35.12 2011
27 Syrian Arab Republic 34.60 2006
28 Iraq 33.60 2011
29 Kenya 32.49 2009
30 Benin 32.40 2012
31 Venezuela 31.13 2013
32 Tanzania 29.22 2014
33 Sierra Leone 26.80 2013
34 Angola 26.60 2001
35 Sudan 25.50 2014
36 Central African Republic 24.81 2010
37 Guinea-Bissau 24.21 2014
38 Peru 24.07 2015
39 Liberia 23.93 2010
40 Nigeria 23.45 2011
41 Cambodia 21.10 2012
42 Rwanda 20.80 2014
43 Romania 20.70 2000
44 Jordan 20.02 2016
45 Vietnam 19.00 2012
46 Zambia 18.58 2008
47 Burundi 18.30 2010
48 Mozambique 18.25 2008
49 El Salvador 15.68 2013
50 Nicaragua 15.58 2012
51 Tunisia 15.40 2012
52 Cameroon 15.00 2011
53 Togo 14.92 2014
54 Costa Rica 14.70 2016
55 Mexico 14.46 2013
56 Philippines 13.90 2011
57 Colombia 13.36 2015
58 Panama 13.10 2014
59 Zimbabwe 12.00 1999
60 Ghana 11.98 2012
61 Uruguay 10.66 2009
62 Dem. Rep. Congo 10.52 2014
63 Namibia 9.49 1999
64 Paraguay 9.29 2014
65 Tajikistan 9.00 2005
66 Nepal 8.75 2014
67 Ecuador 8.22 2015
68 Haiti 7.62 2012
69 Malawi 7.28 2015
70 Bolivia 6.72 2015
71 Uganda 6.62 2012
72 Azerbaijan 6.30 2005
73 Albania 5.10 2010
73 South Africa 5.10 1999
75 Congo 5.00 2012
76 Dominican Republic 4.80 2014
77 Argentina 4.75 2012
78 Algeria 4.51 2013
79 Thailand 4.20 2006
80 Brazil 4.04 2015
81 Mongolia 3.78 2013
82 Portugal 3.60 2001
83 Sri Lanka 3.17 2009
84 Gabon 2.91 2012
85 Trinidad and Tobago 2.60 2006
86 Eswatini 2.44 2010
87 Kazakhstan 1.60 2006
88 North Macedonia 1.45 2011
89 Ukraine 1.30 2012
90 Georgia 1.00 2006
90 Uzbekistan 1.00 2006
92 Chile 0.90 2012
93 Serbia 0.85 2014
94 Kyrgyz Republic 0.29 2014
95 Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.10 2006
96 Belarus 0.00 2012
96 Armenia 0.00 2010
96 Jamaica 0.00 2011
96 Moldova 0.00 2009

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Development Relevance: In most countries more boys are involved in employment, or the gender difference is small. However, girls are often more present in hidden or underreported forms of employment such as domestic service, and in almost all societies girls bear greater responsibility for household chores in their own homes, work that lies outside the System of National Accounts production boundary and is thus not considered in estimates of children's employment.

Limitations and Exceptions: Although efforts are made to harmonize the definition of employment and the questions on employment in survey questionnaires, significant differences remain in the survey instruments that collect data on children in employment and in the sampling design underlying the surveys. Differences exist not only across different household surveys in the same country but also across the same type of survey carried out in different countries, so estimates of working children are not fully comparable across countries. For detailed source information, see footnotes at each data point.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: Data are from household surveys by the International Labor Organization (ILO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Bank, and national statistical offices. The surveys yield data on education, employment, health, expenditure, and consumption indicators related to children's work. Since children's work is captured in the sense of "economic activity," the data refer to children in employment, a broader concept than child labor (see ILO 2009a for details on this distinction). Household survey data generally include information on work type - for example, whether a child is working for payment in cash or in kind or is involved in unpaid work, working for someone who is not a member of the household, or involved in any type of family work (on the farm or in a business). In line with the definition of economic activity adopted by the 13th International Conference of Labour Statisticians, the threshold set by the 1993 UN System of National Accounts for classifying a person as employed is to have been engaged at least one hour in any activity relating to the production of goods and services during the reference period. Children seeking work are thus excluded. Economic activity covers all market production and certain nonmarket production, including production of goods for own use. It excludes unpaid household services (commonly called "household chores") - that is, the production of domestic and personal services by household members for a household's own consumption. Country surveys define the ages for child labor as 5-17. The data here have been recalculated to present statistics for children ages 7-14.

Periodicity: Annual