technology2025

Self-employed workers

Compare self-employed workers across 74 countries or territories using one fixed 2025 ILOSTAT reference slice.

Loading visualization...

Key Insights

Global Average
8,225.3Thousand persons
Median: 806.0Thousand persons
Countries Covered
74
with available data
Highest
India
348,334.8Thousand persons
Lowest
Saint Lucia
26.9Thousand persons
Top 5 Countries
1India348,334.8Thousand persons
2Pakistan42,415.8Thousand persons
3Brazil31,313.9Thousand persons
4Thailand19,990.5Thousand persons
5Mexico18,404.1Thousand persons
By Region
Asia53,058.9Thousand persons(8 countries)
North America10,332.7Thousand persons(3 countries)
Africa9,949.6Thousand persons(1 countries)
South America8,835.8Thousand persons(7 countries)
Other1,817.3Thousand persons(22 countries)
Key Findings
  • 74 ISO-mapped countries or territories have a finite Thousand persons observation in the fixed 2025 slice.
  • India has the highest published value (348335 Thousand persons).
  • Saint Lucia has the lowest published value (26.913 Thousand persons).

Country Rankings

Top 10 Countries

Bottom 10 Countries

Data Analysis

Value Distribution

How countries are distributed across the value range

Low (26.9Thousand persons)High (348,334.8Thousand persons)

Regional Comparison

Average values by world region (Global avg: 8,225.3Thousand persons)

Asia (8)
North America (3)
Africa (1)
South America (7)
Other (22)
Oceania (2)
Europe (31)

Percentile Profile

The curve shows how values change from the lowest to the highest country. Steep sections reveal inequality or outliers.

0th percentile · lowest100th percentile · highest

About This Statistic

With the aim of promoting international comparability, statistics presented on ILOSTAT are based on standard international definitions wherever feasible and may differ from official national figures. This series is based on the 13th ICLS definitions. For time series comparability, it includes countries that have implemented the 19th ICLS standards, for which data are also available in the Work Statistics -- 19th ICLS (WORK) database. The employed comprise all persons of working age who, during a specified brief period, were in one of the following categories: a) paid employment (whether at work or with a job but not at work); or b) self-employment (whether at work or with an enterprise but not at work). Data disaggregated by status in employment are provided according to the latest version of the International Standard Classification of Status in Employment (ICSE-93). Data may have been regrouped from the national classifications, which may not be strictly compatible with ICSE. For more information, refer to the Labour Force Statistics (LFS and STLFS) database description .

MapTheory uses only finite ISO-mapped observations from the fixed 2025 ILOSTAT slice recorded below. Aggregates, missing values, non-ISO geographies, conflicting duplicate observations, and every other year or dimension slice are excluded; MapTheory never imputes or interpolates missing countries.

Methodology

With the aim of promoting international comparability, statistics presented on ILOSTAT are based on standard international definitions wherever feasible and may differ from official national figures. This series is based on the 13th ICLS definitions. For time series comparability, it includes countries that have implemented the 19th ICLS standards, for which data are also available in the Work Statistics -- 19th ICLS (WORK) database. The employed comprise all persons of working age who, during a specified brief period, were in one of the following categories: a) paid employment (whether at work or with a job but not at work); or b) self-employment (whether at work or with an enterprise but not at work). Data disaggregated by status in employment are provided according to the latest version of the International Standard Classification of Status in Employment (ICSE-93). Data may have been regrouped from the national classifications, which may not be strictly compatible with ICSE. For more information, refer to the Labour Force Statistics (LFS and STLFS) database description .

Full Data

Rank Country Value
1India348,334.8Thousand persons
2Pakistan42,415.8Thousand persons
3Brazil31,313.9Thousand persons
4Thailand19,990.5Thousand persons
5Mexico18,404.1Thousand persons
6Colombia10,854.8Thousand persons
7Angola9,949.6Thousand persons
8United States of America9,882.7Thousand persons
9Türkiye9,213.3Thousand persons
10Peru9,002.6Thousand persons
11South Korea6,451.4Thousand persons
12Burkina Faso6,425.7Thousand persons
13Japan6,140.0Thousand persons
14Russian Federation5,643.9Thousand persons
15Italy5,184.2Thousand persons
16Paraguay5,020.9Thousand persons
17United Kingdom4,509.9Thousand persons
18Ecuador4,178.5Thousand persons
19France3,957.8Thousand persons
20Argentina3,736.6Thousand persons
21Germany3,600.3Thousand persons
22Bolivia3,462.3Thousand persons
23Poland3,369.4Thousand persons
24Spain3,277.5Thousand persons
25Serbia3,244.5Thousand persons
26Canada2,711.3Thousand persons
27Chile2,247.3Thousand persons
28Australia2,202.8Thousand persons
29Dominican Republic2,100.6Thousand persons
30Rwanda1,695.2Thousand persons
31Netherlands1,585.8Thousand persons
32Honduras1,453.8Thousand persons
33Greece1,227.2Thousand persons
34El Salvador1,057.8Thousand persons
35Romania1,005.8Thousand persons
36Czech Republic827.6Thousand persons
37Switzerland810.9Thousand persons
38Portugal801.2Thousand persons
39Belgium775.1Thousand persons
40Moldova, Republic of757.8Thousand persons
41Panama752.7Thousand persons
42Austria654.6Thousand persons
43Costa Rica609.0Thousand persons
44Hungary581.7Thousand persons
45Israel580.3Thousand persons
46Sweden536.2Thousand persons
47New Zealand534.0Thousand persons
48Mongolia533.7Thousand persons
49Uruguay516.7Thousand persons
50Republic of The Gambia453.8Thousand persons
51Slovakia400.5Thousand persons
52Ireland385.8Thousand persons
53Bulgaria383.4Thousand persons
54Finland328.8Thousand persons
55Singapore280.2Thousand persons
56Hong Kong278.4Thousand persons
57State of Palestine245.4Thousand persons
58Bhutan228.2Thousand persons
59Denmark226.4Thousand persons
60Croatia222.9Thousand persons
61Lithuania164.6Thousand persons
62Norway162.2Thousand persons
63Slovenia137.9Thousand persons
64Latvia129.1Thousand persons
65The Republic of North Macedonia126.6Thousand persons
66Estonia79.2Thousand persons
67Vanuatu53.0Thousand persons
68Cyprus49.5Thousand persons
69Malta45.3Thousand persons
70Djibouti40.7Thousand persons
71Luxembourg33.7Thousand persons
72Seychelles33.5Thousand persons
73Iceland28.8Thousand persons
74Saint Lucia26.9Thousand persons
Showing 74 of 74 countries

Topics

Data Source

This data comes from International Labour Organization (ILO) (2025).

View Original Source