Average working hours of children, study and work, ages 7-14 (hours per week) - Country Ranking - Africa

Definition: Average working hours of children studying and working refer to the average weekly working hours of those children who are attending school in combination with economic activity.

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 Namibia 34.30 1999
2 Kenya 32.71 2009
3 Somalia 26.10 2006
4 Liberia 22.40 2010
5 Senegal 19.08 2015
6 Mauritania 18.81 2011
7 Egypt 18.80 2009
7 Ethiopia 18.80 2011
9 Madagascar 17.60 2007
9 Burkina Faso 17.60 2010
11 Mali 16.30 2013
12 Central African Republic 15.70 2010
13 Guinea 15.60 2012
14 Tanzania 14.17 2014
15 Ghana 13.70 2006
16 Mozambique 12.90 2008
17 Angola 12.50 2001
18 Burundi 12.10 2010
19 Rwanda 11.80 2014
20 Cameroon 11.40 2011
21 Malawi 10.75 2015
22 Uganda 10.60 2012
22 Benin 10.60 2012
24 The Gambia 10.30 2015
25 Côte d'Ivoire 10.00 2012
26 Sudan 8.89 2014
27 Chad 8.83 2015
28 Lesotho 8.50 2000
29 Sierra Leone 8.40 2013
30 Togo 8.12 2014
31 Gabon 7.50 2012
32 Congo 7.30 2012
33 Niger 7.20 2012
34 Dem. Rep. Congo 7.10 2014
35 Nigeria 7.03 2011
36 Guinea-Bissau 5.77 2014
37 Zambia 4.20 2008
38 Eswatini 4.10 2010
39 Algeria 3.60 2013
40 Tunisia 3.50 2012

More rankings: Africa | Asia | Central America & the Caribbean | Europe | Middle East | North America | Oceania | South America | World |

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).

Periodicity: Annual