Children in employment, unpaid family workers, female (% of female children in employment, ages 7-14) - Country Ranking - Africa

Definition: Unpaid family workers are people who work without pay in a market-oriented establishment operated by a related person living in the same household.

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 Ghana 97.10 2012
2 Namibia 96.50 1999
3 Tanzania 96.16 2014
4 The Gambia 94.56 2015
5 Zambia 93.55 2008
6 Somalia 93.13 2006
7 Mozambique 91.53 2008
8 Madagascar 91.04 2007
9 Ethiopia 90.37 2011
10 Burkina Faso 89.60 2010
11 Togo 88.64 2010
12 Guinea-Bissau 88.45 2006
13 Mauritania 87.02 2011
14 Algeria 87.00 2013
15 Guinea 86.84 2012
16 Uganda 86.47 2012
17 Nigeria 86.43 2011
18 Malawi 86.13 2015
19 Côte d'Ivoire 85.89 2012
20 Senegal 85.51 2011
21 Burundi 85.12 2010
22 Central African Republic 85.01 2010
23 Lesotho 84.58 2000
24 South Africa 84.39 1999
25 Congo 83.59 2012
26 Gabon 82.96 2012
27 Mali 82.60 2013
28 Tunisia 82.37 2012
29 Liberia 81.32 2010
30 Angola 81.20 2001
31 Dem. Rep. Congo 80.90 2010
32 Benin 80.57 2012
33 Eswatini 78.35 2010
34 Niger 72.08 2012
35 Cameroon 71.29 2011
36 Zimbabwe 67.50 1999
37 Sudan 66.38 2008
38 Chad 63.83 2010
39 Sierra Leone 63.07 2013
40 Rwanda 61.43 2011
41 Egypt 27.91 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. In addition, the shares of three categories (self-employed workers, wage workers, and unpaid family workers) may not add up to 100 percent because of a residual category not included.

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