Mapping the World’s Informal Workforce

Around six in ten workers worldwide operate in the informal economy, according to modeled estimates by the International Labour Organization (ILO). Informality has persisted and even increased in many countries over the years, driven by a combination of factors such as limited formal sector job creation and inequality. Today, half of the global workforce is not adequately covered by social security arrangements and the legal protection of workplace safety measures.

While the informal economy plays an important role in production, employment creation and income generation for many, the sector’s workers miss out on the important benefits of national labor legislation and social protection. The Covid-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerability of such workers.

Data from the ILO shows that informal employment varies greatly around the world. According to ILO income groups, low-income countries saw the highest rates of workers in the informal sector in 2024, at an average of 88.5 percent. This is in stark contrast to high-income countries, where modeled estimates put the figure closer to 13.5 percent.

As shown below, this pattern is clear geographically too, with informality most prevalent in the Global South, where several countries in the West and Central African regions recorded over 90 percent of employment as informal. Several countries in South and Southeast Asia also have a high share of informal workers, with Indonesia, Myanmar, India and Bangladesh among those hitting averages of 75-89 percent. While most of the data in this map is based on national household surveys, the United States and Canada are represented by modeled estimates for Northern America (High Income) instead, due to missing survey data. Their average is 8 percent, which is most similar to Poland (8.6 percent) and the United Kingdom (6.5 percent).

According to the ILO’s 2023 report ‘Women and men in the informal economy’, informal employment is a greater source of employment for men (60 percent) than for women (55 percent) worldwide, which is partly due to the influence of major countries such as China and Russia, where men face “greater exposure to informality". In 56 percent of countries, however, especially in low and lower-middle income countries, women represented a higher share of people working in the informal sector. Additionally, people living in rural areas are far more likely to be in informal employment than people living in urban centers.