United Nations Statistics Division - Demographic and Social Statistics

Statistics and indicators on women and men

Introduction | Statistics | Standards and methods

Table 5a. Economic activity
Last update: June 2011
		Adult (15+) economic activity rate		Percentage of women in adult labor force
Country or area	Year	Women	Men	%
Afghanistan	2009	33	85	27
Albania	2009	49	70	42
Algeria	2009	37	80	32
Angola	2009	75	88	47
Argentina	2009	52	78	42
Armenia	2009	60	75	50
Australia	2009	58	72	45
Austria	2009	53	68	46
Azerbaijan	2009	60	67	50
Bahamas	2009	68	79	48
Bahrain	2009	32	85	20
Bangladesh	2009	59	83	41
Barbados	2009	66	78	48
Belarus	2009	55	67	50
Belgium	2009	47	61	45
Belize	2009	47	81	37
Benin	2009	67	78	46
Bhutan	2009	53	71	40
Bolivia	2009	62	82	44
Bosnia and Herzegovina	2009	55	68	47
Botswana	2009	72	81	47
Brazil	2009	60	82	44
Brunei Darussalam	2009	60	75	43
Bulgaria	2009	48	61	46
Burkina Faso	2009	78	91	47
Burundi	2009	91	88	53
Cambodia	2009	74	86	48
Cameroon	2009	54	81	40
Canada	2009	63	73	47
Cape Verde	2009	54	81	43
Central African Republic	2009	72	87	47
Chad	2009	63	78	45
Chile	2009	42	73	37
China	2009	67	80	45
China, Hong Kong SAR	2009	52	69	46
China, Macao SAR	2009	64	76	48
Colombia	2009	41	78	36
Comoros	2009	74	85	46
Congo	2009	63	83	44
Costa Rica	2009	45	80	36
Côte d'Ivoire	2009	51	82	37
Croatia	2009	46	60	46
Cuba	2009	41	67	38
Cyprus	2009	54	71	45
Czech Republic	2009	49	68	43
Democratic People's Republic of Korea	2009	55	78	43
Democratic Republic of Congo	2009	57	86	41
Denmark	2009	60	71	47
Djibouti	2009	62	79	44
Dominican Republic	2009	51	80	39
Ecuador	2009	47	78	38
Egypt	2009	22	75	23
El Salvador	2009	46	77	42
Equatorial Guinea	2009	40	92	31
Eritrea	2009	63	83	45
Estonia	2009	55	69	49
Ethiopia	2009	81	90	48
Fiji	2009	39	78	33
Finland	2009	57	65	48
France	2009	51	62	47
French Guiana	2009	54	66	46
French Polynesia	2009	48	66	41
Gabon	2009	70	81	47
Gambia	2009	71	85	46
Georgia	2009	55	74	47
Germany	2009	53	67	46
Ghana	2009	74	75	49
Greece	2009	43	65	40
Guadeloupe	2009	57	66	50
Guam	2009	52	77	40
Guatemala	2009	48	88	38
Guinea	2009	79	89	47
Guinea-Bissau	2009	60	84	42
Guyana	2009	45	81	34
Haiti	2009	58	83	42
Honduras	2009	40	80	34
Hungary	2009	43	59	45
Iceland	2009	72	83	45
India	2009	33	81	28
Indonesia	2009	52	86	38
Iran, Islamic Republic of	2009	32	73	30
Iraq	2009	14	69	17
Ireland	2009	54	73	43
Israel	2009	52	63	46
Italy	2009	38	61	41
Jamaica	2009	56	74	45
Japan	2009	48	72	42
Jordan	2009	23	74	23
Kazakhstan	2009	66	76	50
Kenya	2009	76	88	47
Kuwait	2009	45	83	25
Kyrgyzstan	2009	55	79	42
Lao People's Democratic Republic	2009	78	79	50
Latvia	2009	54	70	48
Lebanon	2009	22	72	25
Lesotho	2009	71	78	52
Liberia	2009	67	76	48
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya	2009	25	79	22
Lithuania	2009	50	62	49
Luxembourg	2009	48	63	44
Madagascar	2009	84	89	49
Malawi	2009	75	79	50
Malaysia	2009	44	79	35
Maldives	2009	57	77	42
Mali	2009	38	67	37
Malta	2009	32	68	32
Martinique	2009	55	59	52
Mauritania	2009	59	81	42
Mauritius	2009	41	75	36
Mexico	2009	43	81	36
Mongolia	2009	68	78	47
Morocco	2009	26	80	26
Mozambique	2009	85	87	52
Myanmar	2009	63	85	44
Namibia	2009	52	63	47
Nepal	2009	63	80	45
Netherlands	2009	60	73	46
Netherlands Antilles	2009	57	68	50
New Caledonia	2009	44	70	39
New Zealand	2009	62	76	46
Nicaragua	2009	47	78	39
Niger	2009	39	88	32
Nigeria	2009	39	73	35
Norway	2009	63	71	48
Occupied Palestinian Territory	2009	17	68	19
Oman	2009	25	77	19
Pakistan	2009	22	85	19
Panama	2009	48	81	37
Papua New Guinea	2009	72	74	49
Paraguay	2009	57	87	39
Peru	2009	58	76	44
Philippines	2009	49	79	39
Poland	2009	46	62	45
Portugal	2009	56	69	47
Puerto Rico	2009	36	58	41
Qatar	2009	50	93	12
Republic of Korea	2009	50	72	42
Republic of Moldova	2009	47	53	50
Réunion	2009	52	65	46
Romania	2009	45	60	45
Russian Federation	2009	58	69	50
Rwanda	2009	87	85	53
Saint Lucia	2009	51	76	42
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	2009	56	79	41
Samoa	2009	38	75	31
Sao Tome and Principe	2009	45	76	38
Saudi Arabia	2009	21	80	17
Senegal	2009	65	89	43
Serbia*	2009	46	63	43
Sierra Leone	2009	65	68	51
Singapore	2009	54	76	42
Slovakia	2009	51	69	45
Slovenia	2009	53	65	46
Solomon Islands	2009	24	50	31
Somalia	2009	57	85	41
South Africa	2009	47	63	44
Spain	2009	49	69	43
Sri Lanka	2009	34	75	32
Sudan	2009	31	74	29
Suriname	2009	39	66	37
Swaziland	2009	53	75	43
Sweden	2009	61	69	47
Switzerland	2009	61	74	47
Syrian Arab Republic	2009	21	80	21
Tajikistan	2009	57	78	44
TFYR of Macedonia	2009	43	65	40
Thailand	2009	66	81	46
Timor-Leste	2009	59	83	41
Togo	2009	64	86	43
Tonga	2009	55	75	42
Trinidad and Tobago	2009	55	78	43
Tunisia	2009	26	71	27
Turkey	2009	24	70	26
Turkmenistan	2009	62	74	47
Uganda	2009	78	91	47
Ukraine	2009	52	65	49
United Arab Emirates	2009	42	92	16
United Kingdom	2009	55	70	46
United Republic of Tanzania	2009	86	91	49
United States	2009	58	72	46
United States Virgin Islands	2009	49	72	44
Uruguay	2009	54	76	44
Uzbekistan	2009	58	71	46
Vanuatu	2009	79	88	47
Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of	2009	52	80	39
Viet Nam	2009	68	76	49
Yemen	2009	20	74	21
Zambia	2009	60	79	43
Zimbabwe	2009	60	74	48

Top

Sources:

Adult economic activity rate
International Labour Office, Table 1. Labour force participation rate, published in Key Indicators of the Labour Market (KILM) Sixth Edition. Also available at: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/strat/kilm/ (accessed June 2011).

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) Sixth Edition. Also available at: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/strat/kilm/ (accessed June 2011).

Footnotes:

Refers to Serbia and Montenegro.

Top

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.

**JavaScript based drop down DHTML menu generated by NavStudio. (OpenCube Inc. - http://www.opencube.com)**