Self-employment in Latin America by country 2021

Bolivia was the country with the highest share of self-employed workers in Latin America and the Caribbean, followed by Ecuador. In 2021, nearly 70 percent of Bolivians who were employed had a self-employment job (a job where the remuneration is directly dependent upon the profits derived from the goods and services produced).

Moreover, Suriname was the country with the highest share of employees in the total employed population in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Self-employed workers as share of total employed population in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2021, by country

Characteristic	Share of employed population
Bolivia	69.6%
Ecuador	54.1%
Peru	53%
Colombia	51.2%
Honduras*	46%
Paraguay	44.2%
Dominican Republic	43.9%
Panama	40.9%
El Salvador*	38.7%
Jamaica*	38.6%
Guatemala**	36.6%
Belize**	35.2%
Guyana**	34.3%
Brazil	33.7%
Costa Rica	31.9%
Mexico	31.8%
Uruguay	28.4%
Saint Lucia	28.3%
Argentina	27.6%
Chile	24.6%
Trinidad and Tobago	24.5%
Barbados	19.5%

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Release date

2022

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Region

LAC

Survey time period

2021

Supplementary notes

*Data as of 2020.
**Data as of 2019.

According tothe source, 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", which are commonly characterized as jobs where the remuneration is directly dependent upon the profits derived from the goods and services produced. Self-employed workers comprise four sub-categories: employers, own-account workers, members of producers' cooperatives, and contributing family workers.

The figures are calculated from the total employed population. Self-employment status does not include employees (workers who hold the type of jobs defined as “paid employment jobs”, where the incumbents hold employment contracts that give them a basic remuneration), workers not classifiable by status, unemployed or non-economically active population.

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