{"id":1291327,"name":"Public sector employment, as a share of total employment","unit":"%","createdAt":"2026-07-15T08:35:25.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-07-15T08:35:25.000Z","coverage":"","timespan":"2000-2022","datasetId":8066,"shortUnit":"%","columnOrder":0,"shortName":"bi_emp_totl_pb_zs","catalogPath":"grapher/wb/2026-07-14/worldwide_bureaucracy_indicators/worldwide_bureaucracy_indicators#bi_emp_totl_pb_zs","descriptionShort":"The share of all employed people who are paid employees of the public sector, including government, the armed forces, public services, and state-owned enterprises.","descriptionFromProducer":"The proportion of public sector workers out of total employment.\n\nSource: World Bank staff calculations based on the methodology described in World Bank (2023). https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/099062623201028153/p1687031c943fa1313f6814bcf1aeb51371a5665a9ac","type":"float","datasetName":"Worldwide Bureaucracy Indicators (WWBI)","updatePeriodDays":365,"datasetVersion":"2026-07-14","nonRedistributable":false,"display":{"name":"Public sector employment","unit":"%","shortUnit":"%","tolerance":5,"numDecimalPlaces":1},"schemaVersion":2,"processingLevel":"minor","presentation":{"attributionShort":"World Bank","topicTagsLinks":["State Capacity"]},"descriptionKey":["The public sector covers core public administration at the central, regional, and local levels of government, the security sector (including the armed forces), public education and healthcare workers, and public institutions such as central banks and state-owned enterprises.","The indicator counts paid public sector employees relative to all employed people, including the self-employed, employers, and unpaid family workers. In countries where self-employment is widespread — as in much of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa — it is therefore much lower than the public sector's share of paid employees, which the dataset reports separately.","Estimates are calculated by the World Bank from harmonized, nationally representative household and labor force surveys, in which respondents report the sector of their main job. Employment definitions follow the International Labour Organization's classification, making the data broadly comparable with ILO statistics.","For countries in the European Economic Area between 2004 and 2018, the public sector is approximated using industry classifications covering public administration, education, and health. This approximation excludes state-owned enterprises and can include some private education and health workers.","Survey availability differs across countries, so the most recent data point can refer to different years in different countries."],"dimensions":{"years":{"values":[{"id":2003},{"id":2007},{"id":2011},{"id":2013},{"id":2019},{"id":2002},{"id":2004},{"id":2005},{"id":2008},{"id":2012},{"id":2000},{"id":2014},{"id":2018},{"id":2001},{"id":2006},{"id":2009},{"id":2010},{"id":2015},{"id":2016},{"id":2017},{"id":2020},{"id":2021},{"id":2022}]},"entities":{"values":[{"id":15,"name":"Afghanistan","code":"AFG"},{"id":16,"name":"Albania","code":"ALB"},{"id":19,"name":"Angola","code":"AGO"},{"id":21,"name":"Argentina","code":"ARG"},{"id":22,"name":"Armenia","code":"ARM"},{"id":23,"name":"Australia","code":"AUS"},{"id":24,"name":"Austria","code":"AUT"},{"id":25,"name":"Azerbaijan","code":"AZE"},{"id":28,"name":"Bangladesh","code":"BGD"},{"id":4,"name":"Belgium","code":"BEL"},{"id":32,"name":"Benin","code":"BEN"},{"id":33,"name":"Bhutan","code":"BTN"},{"id":34,"name":"Bolivia","code":"BOL"},{"id":35,"name":"Bosnia and Herzegovina","code":"BIH"},{"id":36,"name":"Botswana","code":"BWA"},{"id":37,"name":"Brazil","code":"BRA"},{"id":39,"name":"Bulgaria","code":"BGR"},{"id":40,"name":"Burkina Faso","code":"BFA"},{"id":41,"name":"Burundi","code":"BDI"},{"id":42,"name":"Cambodia","code":"KHM"},{"id":43,"name":"Cameroon","code":"CMR"},{"id":44,"name":"Canada","code":"CAN"},{"id":45,"name":"Cape Verde","code":"CPV"},{"id":174,"name":"Central African Republic","code":"CAF"},{"id":173,"name":"Chad","code":"TCD"},{"id":172,"name":"Chile","code":"CHL"},{"id":171,"name":"China","code":"CHN"},{"id":170,"name":"Colombia","code":"COL"},{"id":169,"name":"Comoros","code":"COM"},{"id":168,"name":"Congo","code":"COG"},{"id":166,"name":"Costa Rica","code":"CRI"},{"id":165,"name":"Croatia","code":"HRV"},{"id":163,"name":"Cyprus","code":"CYP"},{"id":162,"name":"Czechia","code":"CZE"},{"id":167,"name":"Democratic Republic of Congo","code":"COD"},{"id":161,"name":"Denmark","code":"DNK"},{"id":154,"name":"Djibouti","code":"DJI"},{"id":160,"name":"Dominican Republic","code":"DOM"},{"id":225,"name":"East Timor","code":"TLS"},{"id":201,"name":"Ecuador","code":"ECU"},{"id":65,"name":"Egypt","code":"EGY"},{"id":259,"name":"El Salvador","code":"SLV"},{"id":156,"name":"Estonia","code":"EST"},{"id":78,"name":"Eswatini","code":"SWZ"},{"id":158,"name":"Ethiopia","code":"ETH"},{"id":155,"name":"Finland","code":"FIN"},{"id":3,"name":"France","code":"FRA"},{"id":153,"name":"Gabon","code":"GAB"},{"id":151,"name":"Gambia","code":"GMB"},{"id":152,"name":"Georgia","code":"GEO"},{"id":6,"name":"Germany","code":"DEU"},{"id":150,"name":"Ghana","code":"GHA"},{"id":149,"name":"Greece","code":"GRC"},{"id":148,"name":"Guatemala","code":"GTM"},{"id":147,"name":"Guinea","code":"GIN"},{"id":94,"name":"Guinea-Bissau","code":"GNB"},{"id":145,"name":"Haiti","code":"HTI"},{"id":139,"name":"Honduras","code":"HND"},{"id":138,"name":"Hungary","code":"HUN"},{"id":207,"name":"Iceland","code":"ISL"},{"id":137,"name":"India","code":"IND"},{"id":136,"name":"Indonesia","code":"IDN"},{"id":135,"name":"Iran","code":"IRN"},{"id":2,"name":"Ireland","code":"IRL"},{"id":8,"name":"Italy","code":"ITA"},{"id":132,"name":"Jamaica","code":"JAM"},{"id":130,"name":"Jordan","code":"JOR"},{"id":131,"name":"Kazakhstan","code":"KAZ"},{"id":129,"name":"Kenya","code":"KEN"},{"id":379,"name":"Kosovo","code":"OWID_KOS"},{"id":122,"name":"Latvia","code":"LVA"},{"id":124,"name":"Lebanon","code":"LBN"},{"id":123,"name":"Lesotho","code":"LSO"},{"id":121,"name":"Liberia","code":"LBR"},{"id":119,"name":"Lithuania","code":"LTU"},{"id":210,"name":"Luxembourg","code":"LUX"},{"id":118,"name":"Madagascar","code":"MDG"},{"id":117,"name":"Malawi","code":"MWI"},{"id":211,"name":"Maldives","code":"MDV"},{"id":115,"name":"Mali","code":"MLI"},{"id":212,"name":"Malta","code":"MLT"},{"id":114,"name":"Mauritania","code":"MRT"},{"id":213,"name":"Mauritius","code":"MUS"},{"id":113,"name":"Mexico","code":"MEX"},{"id":222,"name":"Micronesia (country)","code":"FSM"},{"id":111,"name":"Moldova","code":"MDA"},{"id":112,"name":"Mongolia","code":"MNG"},{"id":215,"name":"Montenegro","code":"MNE"},{"id":110,"name":"Morocco","code":"MAR"},{"id":109,"name":"Mozambique","code":"MOZ"},{"id":142,"name":"Myanmar","code":"MMR"},{"id":108,"name":"Namibia","code":"NAM"},{"id":107,"name":"Nepal","code":"NPL"},{"id":105,"name":"Nicaragua","code":"NIC"},{"id":104,"name":"Niger","code":"NER"},{"id":103,"name":"Nigeria","code":"NGA"},{"id":102,"name":"Norway","code":"NOR"},{"id":101,"name":"Pakistan","code":"PAK"},{"id":140,"name":"Palestine","code":"PSE"},{"id":100,"name":"Panama","code":"PAN"},{"id":99,"name":"Papua New Guinea","code":"PNG"},{"id":98,"name":"Paraguay","code":"PRY"},{"id":97,"name":"Peru","code":"PER"},{"id":96,"name":"Philippines","code":"PHL"},{"id":11,"name":"Poland","code":"POL"},{"id":95,"name":"Portugal","code":"PRT"},{"id":92,"name":"Romania","code":"ROU"},{"id":12,"name":"Russia","code":"RUS"},{"id":91,"name":"Rwanda","code":"RWA"},{"id":232,"name":"Sao Tome and Principe","code":"STP"},{"id":90,"name":"Saudi Arabia","code":"SAU"},{"id":89,"name":"Senegal","code":"SEN"},{"id":88,"name":"Serbia","code":"SRB"},{"id":87,"name":"Sierra Leone","code":"SLE"},{"id":85,"name":"Slovakia","code":"SVK"},{"id":83,"name":"Slovenia","code":"SVN"},{"id":195,"name":"Solomon Islands","code":"SLB"},{"id":82,"name":"Somalia","code":"SOM"},{"id":81,"name":"South Africa","code":"ZAF"},{"id":9,"name":"Spain","code":"ESP"},{"id":141,"name":"Sri Lanka","code":"LKA"},{"id":10,"name":"Sweden","code":"SWE"},{"id":7,"name":"Switzerland","code":"CHE"},{"id":76,"name":"Tajikistan","code":"TJK"},{"id":64,"name":"Tanzania","code":"TZA"},{"id":75,"name":"Thailand","code":"THA"},{"id":74,"name":"Togo","code":"TGO"},{"id":71,"name":"Tunisia","code":"TUN"},{"id":70,"name":"Turkey","code":"TUR"},{"id":68,"name":"Uganda","code":"UGA"},{"id":67,"name":"Ukraine","code":"UKR"},{"id":1,"name":"United Kingdom","code":"GBR"},{"id":13,"name":"United States","code":"USA"},{"id":63,"name":"Uruguay","code":"URY"},{"id":62,"name":"Uzbekistan","code":"UZB"},{"id":238,"name":"Venezuela","code":"VEN"},{"id":84,"name":"Vietnam","code":"VNM"},{"id":60,"name":"Zambia","code":"ZMB"},{"id":80,"name":"Zimbabwe","code":"ZWE"}]}},"origins":[{"id":15778,"title":"Worldwide Bureaucracy Indicators (WWBI)","description":"The Worldwide Bureaucracy Indicators (WWBI) database is a unique cross-national dataset on public sector employment and wages that aims to fill an information gap, thereby helping researchers, development practitioners, and policymakers gain a better understanding of the personnel dimensions of state capability, the footprint of the public sector within the overall labor market, and the fiscal implications of the public sector wage bill. The dataset is derived from administrative data and household surveys, thereby complementing existing, expert perception-based approaches.\n\nThe WWBI includes 302 indicators that are estimated from microdata drawn from the labor force and household surveys and augmented with administrative data for 202 economies in five categories: the demographics of the private and public sector workforces; public sector wage premiums; relative wages and pay compression ratios, gender pay gaps; and the public sector wage bill. The micro and administrative data utilized in the construction of the WWBI are drawn from data catalogs housing surveys conducted by national statistical organizations (NSO) or multilateral organization data teams. Together, these provide an important, albeit narrow, picture of the skills and incentives of bureaucrats. Indicators on public employment track key demographic characteristics including the size of the public sector workforce (in absolute and relative numbers), their age, and distributions across genders, industries, occupations, income quintiles, and academic qualifications. Variables on compensation capture both the competitiveness of public sector wages (compared to the private sector) as well as wage differentials across industry or occupation of employment, genders, education, and income quintiles within the public and private sectors as well as pay compression ratios in public and private sectors. The indicators on the size of the wage bill offer a glimpse into the structure and affordability of the public sector within the larger economy.","producer":"World Bank","citationFull":"World Bank. 2025. Worldwide Bureaucracy Indicators version 6.0.","versionProducer":"Version 6","urlMain":"https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/search/dataset/0038132/worldwide-bureaucracy-indicators","urlDownload":"https://databank.worldbank.org/data/download/WWBI_CSV.zip","dateAccessed":"2026-07-14","datePublished":"2025-02-28","license":{"url":"https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/search/dataset/0038132/worldwide-bureaucracy-indicators","name":"CC BY 4.0"}}]}