World Bank Group · Firms Competing Against Informal Firms
Firms facing informal competition by country
What share of firms compete against unregistered businesses?
Of the 172 countries compared in the 2026 edition, Qatar had the lowest reading, 1.926%, and Zimbabwe had the highest reading, 82.916%. In the middle country the figure was 41.714%. 9 readings from before 2016 are listed but not compared.
Share
Firms facing informal competition · the 2026 edition
Context statistic
Lowest of 172Qatar
1.926%01the 2026 edition · position · derived
Who leads
The three countries at the lowest end of 172 compared, the three at the other end, and the first on each continent.
1Photo: Haakon S. Krohn derivative work: JamesA · CC BY-SA 3.0, greyscale
2Photo: chensiyuan · CC BY-SA 4.0, greyscale
3
Highest in the 2026 edition
Zimbabwe82.916%
Guinea-Bissau80.029%
Guinea78.581%
Where a country sits says how it compares with the others measured, and nothing about why.
02Every measured country
Firms facing informal competition on a map
Each country is shaded by its value, in five groups holding the same number of countries. Hover a country for its value, or select it to open its profile. Below the map, each continent’s middle country.
Darker is a lower value — the better end.
- 56.924–82.916%
- 47.011–56.775%
- 35.362–46.974%
- 22.855–35.264%
- 1.926–21.602%
- Hatched: a reading from before 2016, listed but not compared (9)
- No reading in the 2026 edition
- Europe
26.184%
the middle country, of 40 measured · 49 members
Austria5.650%
Albania65.286%Lowest and highest reading in Europe.
- Asia
32.487%
the middle country, of 45 measured · 52 members
Qatar1.926%
Cambodia62.717%Lowest and highest reading in Asia.
- Oceania
42.598%
the middle country, of 9 measured · 21 members
Tonga7.210%
Samoa53.675%Lowest and highest reading in Oceania.
- Africa
55.542%
the middle country, of 50 measured · 55 members
South Sudan15.213%Zimbabwe82.916%Lowest and highest reading in Africa.
- Americas
56.428%
the middle country, of 28 measured · 48 members
Canada17.400%
Bolivia75.315%Lowest and highest reading in Americas.
- Every region
22 sub-regions, lowest middle country first
- Western Europe
13.049%
the middle country, of 7 measured · 9 members
Austria5.650%
France19.318%Lowest and highest reading in Western Europe.
- Central Asia
18.569%
the middle country, of 5 measured · 5 members
Tajikistan11.295%
Kyrgyzstan47.011%Lowest and highest reading in Central Asia.
- Eastern Asia
18.747%
the middle country, of 6 measured · 8 members
Japan5.876%
Mongolia50.383%Lowest and highest reading in Eastern Asia.
- Northern Europe
25.157%
the middle country, of 10 measured · 13 members
Finland14.458%
Latvia41.810%Lowest and highest reading in Northern Europe.
- Eastern Europe
28.737%
the middle country, of 10 measured · 10 members
Romania11.864%
Ukraine50.309%Lowest and highest reading in Eastern Europe.
- Western Asia
31.798%
the middle country, of 15 measured · 19 members
Qatar1.926%
Lebanon56.325%Lowest and highest reading in Western Asia.
- Southern Europe
31.922%
the middle country, of 13 measured · 17 members
Greece14.583%Albania65.286%Lowest and highest reading in Southern Europe.
- South-eastern Asia
34.065%
the middle country, of 11 measured · 11 members
Singapore13.911%Cambodia62.717%Lowest and highest reading in South-eastern Asia.
- Southern Asia
35.097%
the middle country, of 8 measured · 9 members
Bhutan13.832%
Pakistan44.613%Lowest and highest reading in Southern Asia.
- Eastern Africa
43.916%
the middle country, of 17 measured · 19 members
South Sudan15.213%Zimbabwe82.916%Lowest and highest reading in Eastern Africa.
- Southern Africa
55.397%
the middle country, of 5 measured · 5 members
South Africa17.093%
Eswatini69.844%Lowest and highest reading in Southern Africa.
- Western Africa
56.849%
the middle country, of 16 measured · 16 members
Mauritania43.091%Guinea-Bissau80.029%Lowest and highest reading in Western Africa.
- South America
57.551%
the middle country, of 10 measured · 12 members
Colombia44.427%Bolivia75.315%Lowest and highest reading in South America.
- Central America
57.574%
the middle country, of 8 measured · 8 members
Mexico21.523%
Nicaragua72.886%Lowest and highest reading in Central America.
- Caribbean
58.044%
the middle country, of 8 measured · 24 members
Grenada36.617%
Jamaica73.415%Lowest and highest reading in Caribbean.
- Middle Africa
63.211%
the middle country, of 9 measured · 9 members
Equatorial Guinea46.929%
Cameroon75.415%Lowest and highest reading in Middle Africa.
- Australia and New Zealand
2 of 2 measured — too few for a middle: Australia, New Zealand.
Australia37.009%
New Zealand45.702%Lowest and highest reading in Australia and New Zealand.
- Melanesia
4 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu.
Vanuatu26.512%
Fiji48.086%Lowest and highest reading in Melanesia.
- Micronesia
1 of 7 measured — too few for a middle: Kiribati.
Kiribati50.780%Lowest and highest reading in Micronesia.
- Northern Africa
3 of 6 measured — too few for a middle: Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia.
Egypt41.131%
Morocco55.390%Lowest and highest reading in Northern Africa.
- Northern America
2 of 4 measured — too few for a middle: Canada, United States.
Canada17.400%
United States22.939%Lowest and highest reading in Northern America.
- Polynesia
2 of 7 measured — too few for a middle: Samoa, Tonga.
Tonga7.210%Samoa53.675%Lowest and highest reading in Polynesia.
03The whole field at once
The spread
172 countries, one dot each, on one scale — further right is a higher value. Half the countries are above 41.714%; a quarter are above 55.800%, and a quarter below 26.194%. The bar in each row marks that continent’s middle country.
04All 181 ever measured
Every country
In order, highest value first — position 1 is the highest value, the way World Bank Group’s own tables read. “=” marks a position shared with another country. World Bank Group ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. This is what registered firms say about their competitors, not a count of informal workers or businesses, and firms in trades where informal rivals are common will report them wherever they are. Survey years differ between countries — check the year beside each reading.
Showing 25 of 181 countries
Values for the 2026 edition.
05In this edition
Firms facing informal competition in records
The extremes of the statistic. A record reached by more than one country names none of them.
Highest reading
82.916%
Firms competing against unregistered or informal firms (%)
Lowest reading
1.926%
Firms competing against unregistered or informal firms (%)
06The measure
About firms facing informal competition
This is the share of formal private firms that say they compete against unregistered or informal businesses, from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys. It is a business-side reading of how much of a market operates outside the rules on registration and tax.
What the number is: Firms competing against unregistered or informal firms (%).
07Where it fits
Connections
Its part in the Country Index, the statistics whose values line up most closely with it across countries, and others on the same subject.
In the Country Index
Context, with no vote
This statistic is published in full under Economy & Innovation and Work & Labour, but does not help decide any Country Index standing.
Economy & InnovationWork & LabourWhich statistics vote, and why
Moves with
Where firms facing informal competition is higher, these tend to be higher too.
- Informal Employment RateILO · 89 countries in commonρ 0.68
- Adolescent Birth Rate (Ages 15–19)UN DESA Population Division · 172 countries in commonρ 0.68
- Gender Inequality IndexUNDP Human Development Report Office · 160 countries in commonρ 0.65
Moves against
Where firms facing informal competition is higher, these tend to be lower.
- Minimum Proficiency in Mathematics, End of PrimaryUIS · 111 countries in commonρ −0.69
- Logistics Performance IndexKeyWorld Bank Group · 127 countries in commonρ −0.69
- Global Innovation IndexWorld Intellectual Property Organization · 135 countries in commonρ −0.69
Rank correlation (ρ, from −1 to 1) across countries, on each statistic’s newest edition, out of 377 statistics sharing at least 80 countries with this one. Two statistics that move together do not cause each other.
08Keep reading
Explore further
The subject
The data, edition by edition
More from World Bank Group
09Questions
Firms facing informal competition: questions and answers
Which country has the lowest firms facing informal competition?
Qatar, at 1.926%, among the 172 countries compared in the 2026 edition.
Which country has the highest firms facing informal competition?
Zimbabwe, at 82.916%, among the 172 countries compared in the 2026 edition.
How many countries does the Firms Competing Against Informal Firms cover?
172 in the 2026 edition, and 181 at least once across all editions.
What is the world average firms facing informal competition?
This site does not calculate a world average, which would depend on how countries are weighted. In the middle country of the 172 compared in the 2026 edition, the figure was 41.714%.
Is this World Bank Group’s own ranking?
No. World Bank Group publishes the values but ranks nobody; the position on this page is derived by Nations Inquiry by ordering the published values, and equal values share a position.
How often is the Firms Competing Against Informal Firms published?
This site holds one edition, describing 2026.
Where does the data come from, and can I download it?
From World Bank Group, under CC BY 4.0. World Bank Enterprise Surveys on Data360, read from the full-precision bulk file, one reading per country from its most recent survey. Every edition is on this site’s Datasets pages as a full table, and downloads as a CSV file with every value unrounded.
10Method
Sources, method and citation
Source
Firms Competing Against Informal Firms — World Bank Group
World Bank Enterprise Surveys on Data360, read from the full-precision bulk file, one reading per country from its most recent survey.
Newest edition
Report year 2026Data year not recorded
Cite the source as: World Bank. Enterprise Surveys. Washington, DC: World Bank Group.
Licence: CC BY 4.0, checked 2026-10-03.
How this page reads the numbers
- World Bank Group ranks nobody on this measure. The position is derived by Nations Inquiry by ordering the published values; equal values share a position.
- Which end is better follows the publisher’s own reading of the measure.
- A country is named at an end only when it holds that value alone. Where several share it, the page says how many and names none first.
- The file gives each country’s most recent reading, so the rows are from different years. Readings from before 2016 are listed but left out of every comparison on this page.
- Values are stored exactly as published and trimmed only for display. “The middle country” is the median of the countries measured, not a world average.
The file itself, column by column — where it came from, what each column holds, and every edition as a CSV — is on its dataset page.
Photographs
The countries at the top of this statistic, from their profiles: Wikimedia Commons, shown in greyscale, each used under the licence named.
- Qatar — Haakon S. Krohn derivative work: JamesA, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Austria — chensiyuan, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Germany — dronepicr, CC BY 2.0
Cite this page
Nations Inquiry (2026). Firms facing informal competition by country: Firms Competing Against Informal Firms, data from World Bank Group. https://nationsinquiry.com/statistics/firms-informal-competition