Domestic Workers in the World: A Statistical Profile

Globally, there are almost 76 million domestic workers, and 76 per cent of them are women.

This new Statistical Brief, prepared jointly by WIEGO and the ILO, used data from 155 countries and territories to examine domestic work worldwide. Globally, domestic work is 4 per cent of women’s employment and 1 per cent of men’s. The overwhelming majority (62.2 million, or 82 per cent) of the world’s domestic workers are in developing and emerging countries, while 13.4 million domestic workers are in developed countries. Further, among domestic workers, 87 per cent of men and 79 per cent of women are informal.

The brief also examines the types of work, the hours worked, education levels and earnings among other factors.