Data for 2018

Self-Employment Rate, 2018

Name: Self-Employment Rate, 2018
Creator: International Labour Organization (ILO)
License: https://www.ilo.org/rights-and-permissions

2018, as ILO’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Self-Employment Rate, 2018 covers 187 countries. Chad is highest, at 91.127; Qatar is lowest, at 0.566. The middle country reads 33.860. Against 2017, 187 values changed (51 up, 136 down), the same countries are covered.

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Self-Employment Rate · Data for 2018

HighestChad

91.127

LowestQatar

0.566

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

187countries
1measure
2018the year it describes
187distinct values15 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, 2018, 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, 2018: every country, as published by International Labour Organization (ILO).
derived
1	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	91.127
2	Niger`NER`Western Africa	91.054
3	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	89.023
4	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	88.963
5	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	86.792
6	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	86.386
7	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	86.018
8	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	85.826
9	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	85.799
10	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	85.626
11	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	84.811
12	South Sudan`SSD`Eastern Africa	84.217
13	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	83.983
14	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	83.249
15	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	83.059
16	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	82.838
17	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	81.036
18	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	80.372
19	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	80.243
20	Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	79.440
21	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	79.251
22	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	79.190
23	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	78.567
24	India`IND`Southern Asia	77.785
25	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	76.529
26	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	76.206
27	Timor-Leste`TLS`South-eastern Asia	75.024
28	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	74.981
29	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	74.778
30	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	74.167
31	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	73.973
32	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	72.967
33	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	71.946
34	Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	71.811
35	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	71.512
36	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	70.980
37	Bolivia`BOL`South America	70.357
38	Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	70.103
39	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	68.315
40	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	68.022
41	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	66.103
42	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	62.275
43	Vanuatu`VUT`Melanesia	62.143
44	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	61.961
45	North Korea`PRK`Eastern Asia	61.583
46	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	60.633
47	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	59.815
48	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	58.461
49	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	58.343
50	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	57.083
51	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	57.043
52	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	56.056
53	Peru`PER`South America	55.949
54	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	55.481
55	Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	53.070
56	Ecuador`ECU`South America	52.928
57	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	52.469
58	Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	51.958
59	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	51.941
60	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	51.809
61	Tonga`TON`Polynesia	51.777
62	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	51.466
63	Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	49.596
64	Colombia`COL`South America	48.021
65	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	47.785
66	Honduras`HND`Central America	46.537
67	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	46.499
68	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	46.010
69	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	45.524
70	Samoa`WSM`Polynesia	45.452
71	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	45.041
72	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	44.020
73	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	43.685
74	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	43.244
75	Paraguay`PRY`South America	43.012
76	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	42.975
77	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	42.197
78	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	42.015
79	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	41.678
80	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	40.849
81	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	40.581
82	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	40.034
83	Panama`PAN`Central America	39.507
84	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	39.045
85	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	38.981
86	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	38.855
87	Venezuela`VEN`South America	37.690
88	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	37.551
89	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	35.882
90	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	35.046
91	Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	34.969
92	Guyana`GUY`South America	34.464
93	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	34.270
94	Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	33.860
95	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	33.627
96	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	33.190
97	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	33.035
98	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	32.249
99	Brazil`BRA`South America	31.898
100	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	31.635
101	Belize`BLZ`Central America	31.437
102	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	31.263
103	Palestine`PSE`Western Asia	30.262
104	Mexico`MEX`Central America	29.935
105	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	29.772
106	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	29.770
107	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	29.522
108	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	28.400
109	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	28.258
110	Saint Lucia`LCA`Caribbean	28.072
111	Uruguay`URY`South America	27.868
112	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	27.702
113	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	27.267
114	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	26.848
115	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	26.838
116	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	26.148
117	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines`VCT`Caribbean	26.072
118	Argentina`ARG`South America	25.529
119	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	25.393
120	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	25.120
121	Chile`CHL`South America	24.566
122	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	24.197
123	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	24.058
124	Suriname`SUR`South America	23.576
125	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	22.990
126	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	22.629
127	Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	22.508
128	Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	21.862
129	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	20.827
130	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	20.479
131	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	20.310
132	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	19.721
133	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	19.189
134	French Polynesia`PYF`Polynesia	18.860
135	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	16.991
136	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	16.944
137	Puerto Rico`PRI`Caribbean	16.650
138	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	16.623
139	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	16.255
140	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	16.117
141	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	16.101
142	Guam`GUM`Micronesia	15.763
143	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	15.572
144	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	15.513
145	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	15.506
146	Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	15.154
147	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	15.091
148	Canada`CAN`Northern America	15.070
149	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	15.016
150	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	14.782
151	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	14.737
152	Bahamas`BHS`Caribbean	14.729
153	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	14.578
154	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	14.354
155	New Caledonia`NCL`Melanesia	14.224
156	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	13.748
157	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	13.279
158	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	13.198
159	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	12.869
160	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	12.782
161	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	12.728
162	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	12.208
163	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	11.996
164	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	11.666
165	France`FRA`Western Europe	11.646
166	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	11.389
167	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	10.519
168	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	10.495
169	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	10.163
170	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	9.919
171	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	9.114
172	Channel Islands`CHI`Northern Europe	8.954
173	United States Virgin Islands`VIR`Caribbean	8.588
174	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	8.531
175	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	8.137
176	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	7.868
177	Brunei`BRN`South-eastern Asia	7.572
178	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	6.892
179	United States`USA`Northern America	6.729
180	Macau`MAC`Eastern Asia	6.282
181	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	5.320
182	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	4.774
183	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	3.974
184	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	2.632
185	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	2.550
186	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	2.007
187	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	0.566

02In 2018

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

1Chad91.127
2Niger91.054
3Sierra Leone89.023
4Madagascar88.963
5Nigeria86.792

Lowest

187Qatar0.566
186Kuwait2.007
185Bahrain2.550
184Saudi Arabia2.632
183United Arab Emirates3.974

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 33.860. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032017 → 2018

Since 2017

What changed between 2017 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+0 / −0countries joined / left
187values changed, of 187 in both
51 · 136rose · fell
0unchanged

Rose most

Namibia33.673 → 37.551+3.879
Panama37.191 → 39.507+2.316
Venezuela36.195 → 37.690+1.495
Puerto Rico15.440 → 16.650+1.210
Thailand50.597 → 51.466+0.869

Fell most

Bosnia and Herzegovina23.683 → 20.479−3.204
Georgia52.049 → 49.596−2.453
Senegal70.376 → 68.022−2.354
Serbia30.573 → 28.258−2.315
Jordan14.805 → 12.728−2.078

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 2018.
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-2018-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) (2018). Self-Employment Rate, 2018 [data set], describing 2018. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/self-employment/2018

0635 held

Other years

‹ The year before
Self-Employment Rate, 2017
187 countries
The year after ›
Self-Employment Rate, 2019
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