GENEVA, 27th October, 2026 (WAM) - Fifteen years after the adoption of the ILO Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189), new estimates from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) show progress in reducing informality among domestic workers in many countries. Yet more than four in five domestic workers worldwide still work informally, often without effective labour and social protection.
According to the ILO Statistical Brief, The state of domestic work in 2025: 15 years after Convention No. 189, an estimated 80.0 million people aged 15 and over are employed as domestic workers worldwide, up from 75.6 million in 2019. Domestic work nevertheless remains relatively stable as a share of employment, accounting for 2.2% of total employment and 4.4% of employees, indicating that the global increase largely reflects broader employment growth in specific regions rather than a specific expansion of domestic work relative to other occupations.
Informality in domestic work declined or remained stable in 91 of the 140 countries with comparable data for 2019 (the year of the ILO’s previous global estimates) and 2025. These countries account for nearly 70% of domestic workers worldwide. The remaining 49 countries, accounting for around 30% of domestic workers, experienced an increase in the proportion of informality.
Despite this progress, an estimated 66.5 million domestic workers, or 83.1% of the global domestic workforce, remain in informal employment – 5.1 million more than in 2019 – without effective labour and social protection.
The global figures largely reflect the growing concentration of domestic workers in countries where informality remains persistently high, rather than a widespread deterioration in working conditions in the sector.
Asia and the Pacific is home to 40.2 million domestic workers, about half of the global total. Africa recorded the largest increase between 2019 and 2025, with an additional 4.2 million domestic workers. Informality is experienced by 93.3% of domestic workers in Africa and is nearly universal in the Arab States. Europe and Central Asia has the lowest regional informality rate, yet more than one in three domestic workers remain informal. The Americas remain the most highly feminized broad region.
The ILO calls for stronger efforts to implement Convention No. 189 and Recommendation No. 201, including through targeted formalization strategies, accessible registration and social protection; effective minimum wages and progress towards living wages; working-time protection; investment in decent care jobs; skills recognition; stronger compliance and enforcement; and social dialogue and collective bargaining.
As demographic shifts, migration, digital transformation and other changes reshape the world of work and intensify care needs, ensuring decent work for domestic workers will be increasingly important to achieving gender equality, building sustainable care systems and advancing social justice.