back to Child Labor in the 1990s
Statistics, Graphs, Tables: Present-Day Child Labor (page 1)
Table 1:
Distribution of Economically Active Children under 15 Years of
Age
(percent of total world child labor)
| Region | 1980 | 1985 | 1990 |
| Africa | 17.0 | 18.0 | 21.3 |
| Americas | 4.7 | 5.6 | na |
| Asia | 77.8 | 75.9 | 72.3 |
| Europe | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| Oceania | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| Source: ILO 1993. Note: na...not available |
Table 2:
Comparison of Labor Force Participation Rates of Children and Adults by Region (percent)
|
Region |
15 years and over | 10-14 years |
|---|---|---|
|
Africa |
65.2 | 22.0 |
| Americas | 61.8 | 7.9 |
| Asia | 68.1 | 15.3 |
| Europe | 54.5 | 0.3 |
| Oceania | 62.7 | 6.9 |
| Source: ILO 1993. |
Although America contains a very low percentage of child labor in the world (Table 1), its depends highly upon countries such as Asia and Africa, which contain the vast majority of child labor in the world. In Africa and Asia, child labor is a substantial part of the labor force, with 22% and 15.3%, respectively, of their labor attributed to children (Table 2).