economic2025
Self-employed share of employment
Compare self-employed share of employment across 176 ISO-mapped countries or territories using one fixed 2025 official-source dataset.
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Key Insights
Global Average
39.3% of total employment
Median: 33.9% of total employment
Countries Covered
176
with available data
Highest
Chad
91.6% of total employment
Lowest
Qatar
0.8% of total employment
Top 5 Countries
1Chad91.6% of total employment
2Niger89.5% of total employment
3Sierra Leone88.8% of total employment
4Madagascar88.3% of total employment
5Nigeria86.2% of total employment
By Region
Key Findings
- •Coverage: 176 ISO-mapped countries or territories in 2025.
- •Published range: 0.832182 to 91.5611 % of total employment.
- •Discovery motivation: Labor Day was the leading accessible Google Trends signal, motivating a labor-market comparison of self-employment across countries.
Country Rankings
Top 10 Countries
Bottom 10 Countries
Data Analysis
Value Distribution
How countries are distributed across the value range
Low (0.8% of total employment)High (91.6% of total employment)
Regional Comparison
Average values by world region (Global avg: 39.3% of total employment)
About This Statistic
Self-employed workers are those workers who, working on their own account or with one or a few partners or in cooperative, hold the type of jobs defined as a "self-employment jobs." i.e. jobs where the remuneration is directly dependent upon the profits derived from the goods and services produced. Self-employed workers include sub-categories of employers, own-account workers and members of producers' cooperatives and contributing family workers.
MapTheory retains one fixed reference year and unit. Only finite values mapped to ISO 3166-1 numeric codes are included; aggregates, missing values and non-ISO geographies are excluded. No value is estimated, imputed or carried across years.
Methodology
Self-employed workers are those workers who, working on their own account or with one or a few partners or in cooperative, hold the type of jobs defined as a "self-employment jobs." i.e. jobs where the remuneration is directly dependent upon the profits derived from the goods and services produced. Self-employed workers include sub-categories of employers, own-account workers and members of producers' cooperatives and contributing family workers.
Full Data
| Rank ↑ | Country ↕ | Value ↕ |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chad | 91.6% of total employment |
| 2 | Niger | 89.5% of total employment |
| 3 | Sierra Leone | 88.8% of total employment |
| 4 | Madagascar | 88.3% of total employment |
| 5 | Nigeria | 86.2% of total employment |
| 6 | Central African Republic | 85.4% of total employment |
| 7 | United Republic of Tanzania | 85.3% of total employment |
| 8 | Mozambique | 85.3% of total employment |
| 9 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | 85.1% of total employment |
| 10 | Burundi | 84.9% of total employment |
| 11 | Ethiopia | 84.3% of total employment |
| 12 | Afghanistan | 83.4% of total employment |
| 13 | Burkina Faso | 82.6% of total employment |
| 14 | Guinea | 81.9% of total employment |
| 15 | Uganda | 80.5% of total employment |
| 16 | Benin | 79.8% of total employment |
| 17 | Papua New Guinea | 78.7% of total employment |
| 18 | Nepal | 78.6% of total employment |
| 19 | Liberia | 78.3% of total employment |
| 20 | Lao People's Democratic Republic | 77.1% of total employment |
| 21 | Haiti | 76.8% of total employment |
| 22 | Republic of the Congo | 76.8% of total employment |
| 23 | Togo | 76.6% of total employment |
| 24 | Mali | 76.4% of total employment |
| 25 | Angola | 75.9% of total employment |
| 26 | Guinea-Bissau | 75.5% of total employment |
| 27 | India | 74.9% of total employment |
| 28 | Timor-Leste | 74.9% of total employment |
| 29 | Zambia | 71.7% of total employment |
| 30 | Cote d'Ivoire | 71.0% of total employment |
| 31 | Zimbabwe | 70.8% of total employment |
| 32 | Solomon Islands | 69.9% of total employment |
| 33 | Bhutan | 69.5% of total employment |
| 34 | Cameroon | 69.3% of total employment |
| 35 | Republic of The Gambia | 68.6% of total employment |
| 36 | Ghana | 67.5% of total employment |
| 37 | Azerbaijan | 67.0% of total employment |
| 38 | Bolivia | 66.3% of total employment |
| 39 | Myanmar | 65.5% of total employment |
| 40 | Kenya | 64.8% of total employment |
| 41 | Senegal | 64.3% of total employment |
| 42 | North Korea | 62.1% of total employment |
| 43 | Malawi | 61.3% of total employment |
| 44 | Bangladesh | 61.0% of total employment |
| 45 | Vanuatu | 60.6% of total employment |
| 46 | Moldova, Republic of | 58.8% of total employment |
| 47 | Comoros | 57.9% of total employment |
| 48 | Mauritania | 57.4% of total employment |
| 49 | Pakistan | 57.0% of total employment |
| 50 | Cambodia | 55.5% of total employment |
| 51 | Vietnam | 53.3% of total employment |
| 52 | Indonesia | 53.3% of total employment |
| 53 | Yemen | 52.6% of total employment |
| 54 | Eritrea | 52.4% of total employment |
| 55 | Ecuador | 52.3% of total employment |
| 56 | Somalia | 52.2% of total employment |
| 57 | Peru | 51.3% of total employment |
| 58 | Djibouti | 51.1% of total employment |
| 59 | Thailand | 50.7% of total employment |
| 60 | Albania | 50.3% of total employment |
| 61 | Georgia | 46.1% of total employment |
| 62 | Colombia | 45.6% of total employment |
| 63 | Uzbekistan | 45.4% of total employment |
| 64 | Samoa | 44.5% of total employment |
| 65 | Nicaragua | 44.3% of total employment |
| 66 | Honduras | 44.1% of total employment |
| 67 | Sao Tome and Principe | 44.0% of total employment |
| 68 | Islamic Republic of Iran | 42.9% of total employment |
| 69 | Syrian Arab Republic | 42.4% of total employment |
| 70 | Dominican Republic | 42.1% of total employment |
| 71 | Sri Lanka | 42.1% of total employment |
| 72 | Tonga | 41.8% of total employment |
| 73 | Paraguay | 41.3% of total employment |
| 74 | Mongolia | 41.2% of total employment |
| 75 | Panama | 40.6% of total employment |
| 76 | Rwanda | 40.4% of total employment |
| 77 | Venezuela | 40.4% of total employment |
| 78 | Morocco | 40.1% of total employment |
| 79 | Guatemala | 39.1% of total employment |
| 80 | Lesotho | 38.5% of total employment |
| 81 | Cape Verde | 38.5% of total employment |
| 82 | People's Republic of China | 37.7% of total employment |
| 83 | Namibia | 36.5% of total employment |
| 84 | Philippines | 36.1% of total employment |
| 85 | Jamaica | 35.7% of total employment |
| 86 | El Salvador | 35.7% of total employment |
| 87 | Belize | 35.2% of total employment |
| 88 | Fiji | 34.1% of total employment |
| 89 | Armenia | 33.7% of total employment |
| 90 | Gabon | 32.4% of total employment |
| 91 | Turkmenistan | 32.0% of total employment |
| 92 | Iraq | 31.7% of total employment |
| 93 | Tajikistan | 31.3% of total employment |
| 94 | Guyana | 31.1% of total employment |
| 95 | Mexico | 30.8% of total employment |
| 96 | Kyrgyzstan | 30.5% of total employment |
| 97 | Greece | 30.5% of total employment |
| 98 | Brazil | 30.3% of total employment |
| 99 | Eswatini | 30.2% of total employment |
| 100 | Algeria | 30.2% of total employment |
| 101 | Türkiye | 28.5% of total employment |
| 102 | Botswana | 28.1% of total employment |
| 103 | Uruguay | 28.0% of total employment |
| 104 | Equatorial Guinea | 27.5% of total employment |
| 105 | Serbia | 27.0% of total employment |
| 106 | Egypt | 27.0% of total employment |
| 107 | Saint Lucia | 26.7% of total employment |
| 108 | Costa Rica | 26.6% of total employment |
| 109 | Kazakhstan | 26.1% of total employment |
| 110 | Libya | 25.9% of total employment |
| 111 | Trinidad and Tobago | 25.7% of total employment |
| 112 | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 25.7% of total employment |
| 113 | Argentina | 25.6% of total employment |
| 114 | Malaysia | 25.4% of total employment |
| 115 | Tunisia | 24.9% of total employment |
| 116 | Cuba | 24.9% of total employment |
| 117 | Chile | 23.9% of total employment |
| 118 | South Korea | 22.7% of total employment |
| 119 | Suriname | 22.5% of total employment |
| 120 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 22.1% of total employment |
| 121 | Italy | 21.1% of total employment |
| 122 | Maldives | 20.0% of total employment |
| 123 | Barbados | 19.5% of total employment |
| 124 | Poland | 18.9% of total employment |
| 125 | New Zealand | 18.4% of total employment |
| 126 | Mauritius | 17.8% of total employment |
| 127 | Montenegro | 17.4% of total employment |
| 128 | South Africa | 17.3% of total employment |
| 129 | Bahamas | 17.1% of total employment |
| 130 | Switzerland | 16.9% of total employment |
| 131 | Netherlands | 16.8% of total employment |
| 132 | The Republic of North Macedonia | 16.6% of total employment |
| 133 | Australia | 16.1% of total employment |
| 134 | Czech Republic | 15.7% of total employment |
| 135 | Slovakia | 14.9% of total employment |
| 136 | Belgium | 14.6% of total employment |
| 137 | Spain | 14.5% of total employment |
| 138 | Romania | 14.5% of total employment |
| 139 | Portugal | 14.4% of total employment |
| 140 | Slovenia | 14.0% of total employment |
| 141 | Malta | 13.9% of total employment |
| 142 | Latvia | 13.7% of total employment |
| 143 | Ireland | 13.4% of total employment |
| 144 | Iceland | 13.3% of total employment |
| 145 | France | 13.3% of total employment |
| 146 | United Kingdom | 13.1% of total employment |
| 147 | Canada | 12.9% of total employment |
| 148 | Croatia | 12.7% of total employment |
| 149 | Singapore | 12.7% of total employment |
| 150 | Finland | 12.5% of total employment |
| 151 | Austria | 12.2% of total employment |
| 152 | Estonia | 12.1% of total employment |
| 153 | Bulgaria | 11.8% of total employment |
| 154 | Hungary | 11.6% of total employment |
| 155 | Lithuania | 11.5% of total employment |
| 156 | Israel | 11.3% of total employment |
| 157 | Jordan | 11.2% of total employment |
| 158 | Luxembourg | 10.3% of total employment |
| 159 | Sweden | 10.2% of total employment |
| 160 | Cyprus | 10.2% of total employment |
| 161 | Japan | 9.1% of total employment |
| 162 | Germany | 8.1% of total employment |
| 163 | Denmark | 7.9% of total employment |
| 164 | Hong Kong | 7.7% of total employment |
| 165 | Brunei Darussalam | 7.3% of total employment |
| 166 | Belarus | 6.8% of total employment |
| 167 | Macao | 6.8% of total employment |
| 168 | Russian Federation | 6.3% of total employment |
| 169 | United States of America | 6.1% of total employment |
| 170 | Saudi Arabia | 5.5% of total employment |
| 171 | United Arab Emirates | 5.1% of total employment |
| 172 | Oman | 5.0% of total employment |
| 173 | Norway | 4.9% of total employment |
| 174 | Kuwait | 3.2% of total employment |
| 175 | Bahrain | 2.4% of total employment |
| 176 | Qatar | 0.8% of total employment |
Showing 176 of 176 countries
Topics
Data Source
This data comes from World Development Indicators (2025).
View Original Source