Find information designed to help keep informal workers safer as they work during the COVID-19 pandemic AND information to assist informal worker organizations and allies in advocacy efforts.
USE AND SHARE THESE COVID-19 SAFETY & PREVENTION RESOURCES
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for Informal Traders
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INFORMATION FOR ADVOCACY
Statistics on the size and significance of the informal economy
The first-ever global estimates on the size of informal employment, published by the ILO in 2018, show 61% of all workers are informally employed. That’s 2 billion workers worldwide—whether self-employed, wage workers, casual day labourers or dependent contractors.
But the numbers are higher or lower depending on the region:
Informal employment as a per cent of total employment by region (excluding developed countries)
| Region | % |
| Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding Southern Africa) | 92 |
| Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole | 89 |
| Southern Asia | 88 |
| East and South-eastern Asia (excluding China) | 77 |
| Middle East and North Africa | 68 |
| Latin America and the Caribbean | 54 |
| Eastern Europe and Central Asia | 37 |
WIEGO has completed comprehensive data on informal workers in urban areas of these countries:
- Informal Workers in Urban South Africa: A Statistical Snapshot (2019) by Mike Rogan
- Informal Workers in Urban Thailand: A Statistical Snapshot (2019) by Wissanee Poonsab, Joann Vanek and Françoise Carré
- Informal Workers in Ghana: A Statistical Snapshot (2020) by William Baah-Boateng and Joann Vanek
Looking for the size of YOUR COUNTRY’s informal workforce?
Country statistics on informality are found at Appendix B, Table B1 (pages 85-90) in Women and Men in the Informal Economy, 3rd edition (PDF, 10Mb).