Data for 1998

Self-Employment Rate, 1998

Name: Self-Employment Rate, 1998
Creator: International Labour Organization (ILO)
License: https://www.ilo.org/rights-and-permissions

1998, as ILO’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Self-Employment Rate, 1998 covers 187 countries. Afghanistan is highest, at 95.204; Qatar is lowest, at 1.474. The middle country reads 39.128. Against 1997, 187 values changed (54 up, 133 down), the same countries are covered.

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Self-Employment Rate · Data for 1998

HighestAfghanistan

95.204

LowestQatar

1.474

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the highest end.

187countries
1measure
1998the year it describes
187distinct values14 decimals, as published
Sep 10, 2026read from the publisher
CC BY 4.0licence

01Position · derived

The table

Every country and every column of Self-Employment Rate, 1998, as published. ILO ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. “=” marks a shared position.

Search this table

Showing 25 of 187 countries · select a heading to sort

Self-Employment Rate, 1998: every country, as published by International Labour Organization (ILO).
derived
1	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	95.204
2	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	95.014
3	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	94.368
4	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	93.915
5	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	93.051
6	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	93.033
7	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	91.841
8	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	90.296
9	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	89.167
10	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	88.847
11	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	87.579
12	Niger`NER`Western Africa	86.232
13	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	86.187
14	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	85.395
15	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	85.339
16	India`IND`Southern Asia	85.234
17	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	85.105
18	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	84.893
19	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	84.535
20	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	84.365
21	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	83.699
22	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	83.626
23	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	83.598
24	South Sudan`SSD`Eastern Africa	83.515
25	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	83.274
26	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	82.798
27	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	82.387
28	Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	81.434
29	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	81.419
30	Timor-Leste`TLS`South-eastern Asia	79.475
31	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	79.424
32	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	78.344
33	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	78.258
34	Bolivia`BOL`South America	76.647
35	Vanuatu`VUT`Melanesia	76.443
36	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	76.019
37	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	74.911
38	Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	74.760
39	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	74.221
40	Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	73.046
41	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	72.279
42	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	68.931
43	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	68.595
44	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	68.016
45	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	67.253
46	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	66.986
47	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	66.958
48	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	65.271
49	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	65.192
50	Peru`PER`South America	64.755
51	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	64.265
52	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	63.998
53	North Korea`PRK`Eastern Asia	62.277
54	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	61.059
55	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	59.621
56	Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	58.112
57	Paraguay`PRY`South America	56.548
58	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	56.481
59	Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	56.061
60	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	55.437
61	Tonga`TON`Polynesia	54.430
62	Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	54.087
63	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	52.892
64	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	52.830
65	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	52.546
66	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	51.468
67	Ecuador`ECU`South America	51.342
68	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	50.843
69	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	50.388
70	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	50.005
71	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	49.499
72	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	49.354
73	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	48.839
74	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	48.746
75	Samoa`WSM`Polynesia	48.242
76	Honduras`HND`Central America	48.159
77	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	47.976
78	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	47.721
79	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	47.711
80	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	46.018
81	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	45.641
82	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	44.080
83	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	43.710
84	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	42.781
85	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	42.638
86	Colombia`COL`South America	42.584
87	Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	42.526
88	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	41.846
89	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	41.396
90	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	40.649
91	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	39.642
92	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	39.397
93	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	39.198
94	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	39.128
95	Venezuela`VEN`South America	38.555
96	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	38.374
97	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	38.190
98	Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	37.842
99	Guyana`GUY`South America	37.639
100	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	37.386
101	Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	37.089
102	Panama`PAN`Central America	36.821
103	Mexico`MEX`Central America	36.396
104	Palestine`PSE`Western Asia	35.453
105	Belize`BLZ`Central America	34.852
106	Brazil`BRA`South America	34.715
107	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	34.690
108	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	33.819
109	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	33.378
110	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	32.059
111	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	31.912
112	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	31.703
113	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	31.652
114	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	31.288
115	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	30.849
116	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	30.727
117	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	29.838
118	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	28.696
119	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	27.932
120	Saint Lucia`LCA`Caribbean	27.614
121	Argentina`ARG`South America	27.254
122	Chile`CHL`South America	26.765
123	Uruguay`URY`South America	26.733
124	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines`VCT`Caribbean	25.433
125	French Polynesia`PYF`Polynesia	25.397
126	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	24.658
127	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	23.591
128	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	23.542
129	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	23.162
130	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	23.145
131	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	22.921
132	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	22.838
133	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	22.831
134	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	22.694
135	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	21.646
136	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	21.093
137	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	21.047
138	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	20.315
139	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	19.572
140	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	18.474
141	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	18.442
142	Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	18.404
143	Suriname`SUR`South America	17.812
144	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	17.811
145	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	17.524
146	Guam`GUM`Micronesia	17.470
147	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	17.371
148	Canada`CAN`Northern America	17.183
149	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	17.009
150	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	17.003
151	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	16.617
152	Bahamas`BHS`Caribbean	16.070
153	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	16.022
154	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	15.469
155	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	15.409
156	New Caledonia`NCL`Melanesia	15.333
157	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	14.587
158	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	14.516
159	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	14.506
160	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	14.310
161	Puerto Rico`PRI`Caribbean	13.996
162	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	13.856
163	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	13.276
164	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	12.879
165	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	12.717
166	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	12.594
167	France`FRA`Western Europe	12.444
168	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	12.222
169	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	10.978
170	Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	10.561
171	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	10.483
172	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	9.697
173	Macau`MAC`Eastern Asia	9.669
174	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	9.595
175	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	9.518
176	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	9.281
177	Channel Islands`CHI`Northern Europe	9.261
178	Brunei`BRN`South-eastern Asia	8.863
179	United States`USA`Northern America	8.392
180	United States Virgin Islands`VIR`Caribbean	8.137
181	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	7.602
182	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	7.341
183	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	7.218
184	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	4.462
185	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	3.633
186	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	3.377
187	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	1.474

02In 1998

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

1Afghanistan95.204
2Chad95.014
3Nigeria94.368
4Guinea93.915
5Mozambique93.051

Lowest

187Qatar1.474
186United Arab Emirates3.377
185Kuwait3.633
184Bahrain4.462
183Saudi Arabia7.218

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 39.128. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

031997 → 1998

Since 1997

What changed between 1997 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+0 / −0countries joined / left
187values changed, of 187 in both
54 · 133rose · fell
0unchanged

Rose most

Sri Lanka43.996 → 47.711+3.715
Venezuela35.063 → 38.555+3.492
Indonesia64.654 → 67.253+2.599
Peru62.703 → 64.755+2.052
Romania32.225 → 33.819+1.594

Fell most

Equatorial Guinea41.185 → 38.190−2.995
Suriname20.667 → 17.812−2.855
Vietnam76.991 → 74.221−2.770
Mexico38.760 → 36.396−2.364
Hungary17.473 → 16.022−1.452

Both years come from the same release, so a difference here is a change in the data, not a revision of it. Every country’s full history is charted on the statistic page.

04Caveats

Read before you use

What this edition’s numbers are and are not, worked out from the file itself.

How values are stored

One year of the 2026 release
Every year in this series comes from ILO’s 2026 release, recalculated on one method. It can differ from what was first published for 1998.
The position is ours
ILO publishes values only; the order is this site’s.
Nothing missing
Every one of the 187 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

The table as a file, digit for digit, what this site changed, and a citation for this edition.

Licence in full

.csv
For a spreadsheet or code
187 rows · 7.1 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download self-employment-1998-nations-inquiry.csv
↗
The publisher’s original
ILO’s own file, on its own site.
SL.EMP.SELF.ZS

What this site changed: Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.

Licence: CC BY 4.0 · what it allows, in plain words

Cite this edition

International Labour Organization (ILO) (1998). Self-Employment Rate, 1998 [data set], describing 1998. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/self-employment/1998

0635 held

Other years

‹ The year before
Self-Employment Rate, 1997
187 countries
The year after ›
Self-Employment Rate, 1999
187 countries
All of them
Self-Employment Rate: every year
35 held, with the data dictionary, coverage and licence.
How it has moved, charted by country

07Questions