Informal employment rate (current ILO definition - ICLS19) 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 includes only countries for which the 19th ICLS definitions are applied. This harmonized series for...
What the numbers show
Informal employment rate (current ILO definition - ICLS19) is currently reported for 47 countries. The highest value is 94.09 in Angola; the lowest is 0.857 in Hungary.
The median across all reporting countries is 8.35, and the mean is 23.72.
The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 110.
Over the past decade 16 countries rose and 27 fell. The largest increase was in Croatia (up 219.6%), and the largest decrease in Czechia (down 81.3%).
Informal employment rate: full country ranking
| # | Country | Latest | Year | 10-year change | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Angola | 94.09 | 2025 | up 9.1% | rising |
| 2 | Rwanda | 86.75 | 2025 | up 7.9% | rising |
| 3 | Zimbabwe | 73.86 | 2024 | down 7.1% | falling |
| 4 | Botswana | 72.31 | 2024 | up 5.7% | rising |
| 5 | Zambia | 68.9 | 2024 | down 0.4% | flat |
| 6 | Viet Nam | 64.57 | 2024 | — | flat |
| 7 | El Salvador | 59.48 | 2025 | down 7.1% | falling |
| 8 | Panama | 55.73 | 2025 | up 16.5% | rising |
| 9 | Jordan | 54.2 | 2024 | up 21.4% | rising |
| 10 | Georgia | 51.61 | 2025 | up 30.2% | rising |
| 11 | Guyana | 48.82 | 2024 | down 3.9% | flat |
| 12 | Mongolia | 36.83 | 2025 | down 17.3% | falling |
| 13 | Costa Rica | 36.11 | 2025 | down 14.1% | falling |
| 14 | Brazil | 35.62 | 2025 | down 11.9% | falling |
| 15 | Uruguay | 32.51 | 2025 | up 35.8% | rising |
| 16 | Armenia | 32.02 | 2024 | down 29.0% | falling |
| 17 | Chile | 26.18 | 2025 | down 32.8% | falling |
| 18 | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland | 19.81 | 2018 | — | rising |
| 19 | Russian Federation | 19.23 | 2025 | up 1.6% | flat |
| 20 | Republic of Moldova | 18.01 | 2025 | down 28.2% | falling |
| 21 | Croatia | 14.82 | 2025 | up 219.6% | volatile |
| 22 | Serbia | 11.44 | 2025 | — | falling |
| 23 | Latvia | 8.91 | 2025 | up 85.5% | rising |
| 24 | Italy | 8.35 | 2025 | up 118.0% | rising |
| 25 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 7.83 | 2025 | — | falling |
| 26 | Slovakia | 6.25 | 2025 | down 57.7% | falling |
| 27 | Estonia | 6.1 | 2025 | up 144.1% | volatile |
| 28 | Austria | 5.5 | 2025 | up 181.9% | rising |
| 29 | Netherlands | 5.05 | 2025 | down 60.1% | falling |
| 30 | Lithuania | 4.49 | 2025 | up 15.6% | rising |
| 31 | Luxembourg | 4.43 | 2025 | up 155.5% | volatile |
| 32 | Greece | 4.2 | 2025 | down 0.8% | falling |
| 33 | Spain | 3.8 | 2025 | down 25.6% | falling |
| 34 | Bulgaria | 3.58 | 2025 | down 47.8% | falling |
| 35 | Ireland | 3.42 | 2025 | down 8.8% | falling |
| 36 | France | 3.39 | 2025 | down 45.4% | falling |
| 37 | Slovenia | 3.35 | 2025 | down 33.1% | falling |
| 38 | Czechia | 3.34 | 2025 | down 81.3% | falling |
| 39 | Sweden | 3.23 | 2025 | down 17.9% | flat |
| 40 | Norway | 3.15 | 2025 | down 39.7% | falling |
| 41 | Cyprus | 2.91 | 2025 | down 75.9% | falling |
| 42 | Belgium | 2.45 | 2025 | down 8.6% | falling |
| 43 | Portugal | 2.33 | 2025 | down 63.6% | falling |
| 44 | Denmark | 2.22 | 2025 | down 78.4% | falling |
| 45 | Finland | 1.54 | 2025 | down 81.1% | volatile |
| 46 | Switzerland | 1.09 | 2024 | up 27.7% | rising |
| 47 | Hungary | 0.857 | 2020 | down 69.4% | volatile |
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 includes only countries for which the 19th ICLS definitions are applied. This harmonized series for informal employment 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 Work Statistics -- 19th ICLS (WORK) database description.