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Statistics and indicators on women and men

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Table 5a. Economic activity
Last update: June 2009
		Adult (15+) economic activity rate		Percentage of women in adult labor force
Country or area	Year	Women	Men	%
Afghanistan	2007	28	89	23
Albania	2007	50	71	42
Algeria	2007	37	78	32
Angola	2007	75	89	47
Argentina	2007	50	76	41
Armenia	2007	56	68	50
Australia	2007	57	72	45
Austria	2007	52	68	45
Azerbaijan	2007	60	71	48
Bahamas	2007	67	78	48
Bahrain	2007	34	84	21
Bangladesh	2007	57	85	39
Barbados	2007	67	79	48
Belarus	2007	53	66	49
Belgium	2007	46	60	45
Belize	2007	46	81	36
Benin	2007	59	86	40
Bhutan	2007	43	80	32
Bolivia	2007	66	83	45
Bosnia and Herzegovina	2007	53	67	46
Botswana	2007	48	63	44
Brazil	2007	60	82	43
Brunei Darussalam	2007	58	75	42
Bulgaria	2007	46	57	47
Burkina Faso	2007	77	90	47
Burundi	2007	90	90	52
Cambodia	2007	75	87	49
Cameroon	2007	52	75	41
Canada	2007	63	73	47
Cape Verde	2007	47	75	41
Central African Republic	2007	67	87	45
Chad	2007	71	77	49
Channel Islands	2007	51	69	44
Chile	2007	39	72	36
China	2007	71	80	46
China, Hong Kong SAR	2007	53	70	46
China, Macao SAR	2007	59	73	47
Colombia	2007	64	79	46
Comoros	2007	63	83	44
Congo	2007	56	83	41
Costa Rica	2007	43	79	35
Côte d'Ivoire	2007	39	85	31
Croatia	2007	45	60	45
Cuba	2007	45	69	39
Cyprus	2007	54	70	45
Czech Republic	2007	51	68	45
Democratic People's Republic of Korea	2007	58	78	44
Democratic Republic of the Congo	2007	54	90	39
Denmark	2007	61	71	47
Djibouti	2007	58	77	43
Dominican Republic	2007	57	73	44
Ecuador	2007	52	79	40
Egypt	2007	24	71	25
El Salvador	2007	47	79	39
Equatorial Guinea	2007	43	92	33
Eritrea	2007	55	86	41
Estonia	2007	54	65	50
Ethiopia	2007	80	91	47
Fiji	2007	39	79	33
Finland	2007	58	65	48
France	2007	50	62	46
French Guiana	2007	54	65	45
French Polynesia	2007	48	72	39
Gabon	2007	62	80	44
Gambia	2007	70	84	46
Georgia	2007	55	74	47
Germany	2007	51	66	45
Ghana	2007	72	73	49
Greece	2007	43	65	41
Guadeloupe	2007	57	63	50
Guam	2007	56	78	41
Guatemala	2007	45	85	37
Guinea	2007	79	89	47
Guinea-Bissau	2007	54	90	38
Guyana	2007	48	82	35
Haiti	2007	39	83	33
Honduras	2007	37	82	32
Hungary	2007	44	59	45
Iceland	2007	71	80	47
India	2007	34	82	28
Indonesia	2007	50	86	37
Iran, Islamic Republic	2007	32	75	29
Iraq	2007	14	69	17
Ireland	2007	53	73	43
Israel	2007	50	61	47
Italy	2007	39	61	41
Jamaica	2007	55	74	44
Japan	2007	48	72	41
Jordan	2007	16	72	17
Kazakhstan	2007	65	75	50
Kenya	2007	74	87	46
Kuwait	2007	43	81	24
Kyrgyzstan	2007	53	75	43
Lao People's Democratic Republic	2007	79	80	51
Latvia	2007	54	69	49
Lebanon	2007	25	77	26
Lesotho	2007	68	75	52
Liberia	2007	55	85	40
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya	2007	26	78	24
Lithuania	2007	51	61	50
Luxembourg	2007	48	64	44
Madagascar	2007	82	88	49
Malawi	2007	76	80	50
Malaysia	2007	45	80	35
Maldives	2007	54	76	40
Mali	2007	37	65	38
Malta	2007	33	68	33
Martinique	2007	55	60	51
Mauritania	2007	60	80	43
Mauritius	2007	42	77	36
Mexico	2007	41	80	36
Mongolia	2007	58	61	49
Morocco	2007	25	80	25
Mozambique	2007	88	77	56
Myanmar	2007	69	86	45
Namibia	2007	49	59	46
Nepal	2007	59	76	45
Netherlands	2007	57	71	45
Netherlands Antilles	2007	55	68	49
New Caledonia	2007	44	71	38
New Zealand	2007	61	75	46
Nicaragua	2007	38	87	31
Niger	2007	39	88	31
Nigeria	2007	39	71	36
Norway	2007	62	71	48
Occuupied Palestinian Territory	2007	14	67	17
Oman	2007	26	77	20
Pakistan	2007	21	85	19
Panama	2007	48	80	37
Papua New Guinea	2007	71	73	49
Paraguay	2007	71	84	45
Peru	2007	64	82	44
Philippines	2007	50	80	38
Poland	2007	47	61	46
Portugal	2007	56	70	47
Puerto Rico	2007	38	58	43
Qatar	2007	41	92	15
Republic of Korea	2007	49	73	41
Republic of Moldova	2007	45	48	52
Réunion	2007	52	65	46
Romania	2007	46	60	45
Russian Federation	2007	57	69	50
Rwanda	2007	81	79	53
Saint Lucia	2007	52	79	41
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	2007	54	80	40
Samoa	2007	41	76	33
Sao Tome and Principe	2007	43	71	38
Saudi Arabia	2007	19	80	15
Senegal	2007	62	86	42
Serbia *	2007	52	67	45
Sierra Leone	2007	65	67	50
Singapore	2007	54	76	41
Slovakia	2007	52	69	45
Slovenia	2007	52	65	46
Solomon Islands	2007	54	81	38
Somalia	2007	54	89	39
South Africa	2007	47	60	45
Spain	2007	47	68	42
Sri Lanka	2007	43	75	37
Sudan	2007	31	72	30
Suriname	2007	37	65	37
Swaziland	2007	62	69	50
Sweden	2007	61	69	48
Switzerland	2007	60	75	46
Syrian Arab Republic	2007	21	78	21
Tajikistan	2007	56	67	47
TFYR of Macedonia	2007	42	66	39
Thailand	2007	66	81	47
Timor-Leste	2007	58	83	41
Togo	2007	52	87	38
Tonga	2007	53	71	42
Trinidad and Tobago	2007	55	77	43
Tunisia	2007	26	71	27
Turkey	2007	24	71	26
Turkmenistan	2007	59	71	47
Uganda	2007	82	90	48
Ukraine	2007	53	65	50
United Arab Emirates	2007	40	93	15
United Kingdom	2007	56	70	46
United Republic of Tanzania	2007	87	90	50
United States	2007	59	72	46
United States Virgin	2007	58	62	53
Uruguay	2007	53	75	44
Uzbekistan	2007	58	70	46
Vanuatu	2007	79	88	47
Venezuela	2007	52	81	39
Viet Nam	2007	69	76	48
Western Sahara	2007	57	83	37
Yemen	2007	22	66	24
Zambia	2007	60	81	43
Zimbabwe	2007	60	80	43

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Sources:

Adult economic activity rate
International Labour Office, Table 1. Labour force participation rate, published in Key Indicators of the Labour Market (KILM) Fifth Edition, CD-ROM version (ISBN 978-92-2-020137-4). Also available at: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/strat/kilm/ (accessed June 2009).

Share of women in the adult labour force
Calculated by the United Nations Statistics Division based on data published by the International Labour Office in Table 1. Labour force participation rate, published in Key Indicators of the Labour Market (KILM) Fifth Edition, CD-ROM version (ISBN 978-92-2-020137-4). Also available at: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/strat/kilm/ (accessed December 2008).

Footnotes:

Refers to Serbia and Montenegro.

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Technical notes:

Adult economic activity rate refers to the percentage of the population aged 15 and over, unless otherwise specified, which is economically active. The share of women in the adult labour force refers to the percentage of the economically active who are women.

Data on adult economic activity are compiled by the International Labour Office from a variety of national sources including labour force sample surveys, household surveys, population censuses and official estimates provided by national statistical services to ILO in publications and questionnaires.

The statistical concept of economically active population used here is that recommended by the International Conference of Labour Statisticians in 1982 and is designed to be consistent with the concept of economic production in the System of National Accounts. It defines as economically active all employed and unemployed persons, including those seeking work for the first time. It covers employers operating unincorporated enterprises, persons working on their own account, employees, unpaid contributing family workers, members of producers cooperatives and members of the armed forces. In the internationally recommended definition, production of primary products such as foodstuffs for own consumption and certain other non-monetary activities are considered economic activity and persons engaged in such production are to be considered economically active. In principle, any such work for as little as one hour a week is taken to define a person as economically active.

Specific elements of the standard concept of economically active population may differ substantially from country to country, such as the choice of time-reference period and the determination of minimum hours of work and unpaid family work, including production for own consumption. These differences may result, in particular, in the undercounting of women who are economically active. Also, in most countries the statistics of the economically active population relate only to employed and unemployed persons above a specified age while in some there is no such age provision in the definition of economic activity.