Informal Economy - Statistics

Statistics

The informal economy under any governing system is diverse and includes small-scaled, occasional members (often street vendors and garbage recyclers) as well as larger, regular enterprises (including transit systems such as that of Lima, Peru). Informal economies include garment workers working from their homes, as well as informally employed personnel of formal enterprises. Employees working in the informal sector can be classified as wage workers, non-wage workers, or a combination of both.

The above definition does not include criminal activities, that are irregular by nature. Crime cannot be included because such acts have no regulated counterpart against which they may be compared. (Of course, by their nature, informal economic activities escape regulation but that does not necessarily imply that they are unlawful or criminal). Domestic labor, such as childcare and cooking, is in general not included when performed in the natural course of daily living. These activities are either formal or informal.

Statistics on the informal economy are unreliable by virtue of the subject, yet they can provide a tentative picture of its relevance: For example, informal employment makes up 48% of non-agricultural employment in North Africa, 51% in Latin America, 65% in Asia, and 72% in sub-Saharan Africa. If agricultural employment is included, the percentages rises, in some countries like India and many sub-Saharan African countries beyond 90%. Estimates for developed countries are around 15%.

In developing countries, the largest part of informal work, around 70%, is self-employed, in developed countries, wage employment predominates. The majority of informal economy workers are women. Policies and developments affecting the informal economy have thus a distinctly gendered effect.

A report from World Bank estimates the informal economies of 162 countries for the years of 1999 to 2007.