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

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 Morocco 90.50 1999
2 The Gambia 57.16 2015
3 Burkina Faso 55.62 2010
4 Mali 53.90 2013
5 Egypt 52.00 2009
6 Niger 50.40 2012
7 Senegal 47.71 2015
8 Somalia 46.10 2006
9 Mauritania 45.23 2011
10 Guinea 45.10 2012
11 Chad 43.91 2015
12 Madagascar 43.00 2007
13 Ethiopia 35.45 2011
14 Côte d'Ivoire 35.19 2012
15 Kenya 33.16 2009
16 Tanzania 30.66 2014
17 Benin 28.80 2012
18 Sierra Leone 28.10 2013
19 Rwanda 25.00 2014
20 Angola 24.70 2001
21 Lesotho 23.55 2000
22 Guinea-Bissau 22.67 2014
23 Sudan 22.42 2014
24 Liberia 22.32 2010
25 Nigeria 20.46 2011
26 Zambia 18.79 2008
27 Burundi 18.05 2010
28 Mozambique 17.30 2008
29 Central African Republic 17.13 2010
30 Zimbabwe 12.80 1999
31 Ghana 12.69 2012
32 Namibia 12.34 1999
33 Cameroon 12.30 2011
34 Togo 11.54 2014
35 Tunisia 10.90 2012
36 Malawi 7.49 2015
37 Dem. Rep. Congo 7.39 2014
38 Uganda 7.18 2012
39 Congo 4.80 2012
40 South Africa 4.70 1999
41 Gabon 4.25 2012
42 Algeria 4.05 2013
43 Eswatini 3.05 2010

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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