Silhouetted figures stand against a twilight cityscape, with one holding a mop and another a golf club, suggesting diverse urban activities.

Policy resources

Data on Domestic workers

Data on domestic work is notoriously difficult to capture. The ILO published its first estimates on domestic work in 2013, in “Domestic workers across the world”. This methodology was then refined and adapted in 2016, and published as a component of the “ILO global estimates on migrant workers”. These two key resources are accompanied by guides on qualitative and quantitative research on domestic work, estimates on child domestic work, and some thinking around how to measure the social and economic value of domestic work.

Most recent data

- Making decent work a reality for domestic workers: ten years after C189
- Making decent work a reality for domestic workers in Asia and the Pacific: ten years after C189
- Making decent work a reality for domestic workers in the Middle East: ten years after C189

Other resources

- ILO global estimates on migrant workers, Report
- Domestic workers across the world: Global and regional statistics and the extent of legal protection, Report
- Global and regional estimates on domestic workers, Policy Brief
- Coverage of domestic workers by key working conditions laws, Policy Brief
- Child domestic work: Global estimates 2012, Brief
- ILO survey on domestic workers: Preliminary guidelines, Survey
- Measuring the economic and social value of domestic work: Conceptual and methodological framework, Working Paper
- Measuring the economic and social value of domestic work, Policy Brief