Care employment outside the formal sector (previous ILO definition - ICLS13) by country
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...
What the numbers show
Care employment outside the formal sector (previous ILO definition - ICLS13) is currently reported for 43 countries. The highest value is 11,420 in India; the lowest is 1.01 in Seychelles.
The median across all reporting countries is 197.09, and the mean is 779.91.
The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 11,307.
Over the past decade 30 countries rose and 13 fell. The largest increase was in Brunei Darussalam (up 1,434.2%), and the largest decrease in Bosnia and Herzegovina (down 61.5%).
Care employment outside the formal sector: full country ranking
| # | Country | Latest | Year | 10-year change | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | India | 11,420 | 2025 | up 47.4% | rising |
| 2 | Brazil | 5,286 | 2025 | up 17.8% | rising |
| 3 | Mexico | 2,858 | 2026 | up 12.5% | rising |
| 4 | Pakistan | 2,512 | 2025 | up 198.1% | rising |
| 5 | Bangladesh | 1,432 | 2024 | down 35.0% | rising |
| 6 | South Africa | 1,231 | 2024 | up 4.2% | volatile |
| 7 | Argentina | 1,116 | 2025 | up 21.6% | rising |
| 8 | Egypt | 872.07 | 2024 | up 224.1% | volatile |
| 9 | Colombia | 840.02 | 2025 | down 19.7% | falling |
| 10 | Jordan | 698.23 | 2023 | up 327.8% | volatile |
| 11 | Türkiye | 672.99 | 2025 | up 55.1% | rising |
| 12 | Angola | 546.93 | 2025 | up 84.0% | rising |
| 13 | Uganda | 447.59 | 2021 | up 305.2% | volatile |
| 14 | Guatemala | 406.16 | 2024 | up 50.8% | rising |
| 15 | Viet Nam | 405.12 | 2024 | up 44.2% | rising |
| 16 | Dominican Republic | 298.57 | 2025 | up 10.5% | rising |
| 17 | Thailand | 274.97 | 2024 | up 62.8% | rising |
| 18 | Ecuador | 210.62 | 2025 | up 45.5% | falling |
| 19 | Zimbabwe | 203.82 | 2024 | up 63.3% | rising |
| 20 | Rwanda | 200.47 | 2025 | down 6.7% | falling |
| 21 | El Salvador | 199.08 | 2025 | up 40.9% | rising |
| 22 | Zambia | 197.09 | 2024 | up 5.5% | rising |
| 23 | Sri Lanka | 194.38 | 2024 | down 13.5% | rising |
| 24 | Honduras | 190.76 | 2017 | up 78.0% | rising |
| 25 | Bolivia, Plurinational State of | 163.33 | 2025 | up 37.1% | rising |
| 26 | Panama | 118.28 | 2025 | up 62.2% | rising |
| 27 | Costa Rica | 111.13 | 2025 | down 14.0% | falling |
| 28 | Myanmar | 109.76 | 2020 | down 34.1% | falling |
| 29 | Senegal | 96.28 | 2024 | down 52.2% | falling |
| 30 | Uruguay | 68.21 | 2025 | up 10.5% | falling |
| 31 | Botswana | 51.93 | 2024 | up 45.9% | rising |
| 32 | Georgia | 24.9 | 2025 | up 5.4% | rising |
| 33 | Kyrgyzstan | 19.11 | 2023 | down 56.8% | volatile |
| 34 | Mauritius | 17.75 | 2024 | down 46.3% | falling |
| 35 | Serbia | 16 | 2019 | up 116.9% | rising |
| 36 | Guyana | 6.04 | 2024 | down 30.5% | falling |
| 37 | Palestine, State of | 5.11 | 2025 | down 5.9% | volatile |
| 38 | Brunei Darussalam | 4.57 | 2024 | up 1,434.2% | rising |
| 39 | Mongolia | 4.31 | 2025 | up 6.7% | flat |
| 40 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 1.98 | 2025 | down 61.5% | flat |
| 41 | North Macedonia | 1.87 | 2025 | up 50.6% | falling |
| 42 | Grenada | 1.49 | 2023 | down 19.2% | volatile |
| 43 | Seychelles | 1.01 | 2025 | up 48.7% | flat |
About this data
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. This harmonized series for employment outside the formal sector is derived using the same set of criteria across countries to improve comparability. The criteria used are based on employment status, institutional sector, destination of production, bookkeeping, registration, social security contribution, places of work and size. For more information, refer to the Worker and Sector Profiles (PROF) database description.