Data

Share of the labor force employed in agriculture

About this data

Source
International Labor Organization and historical sources (2024)processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
January 3, 2024
Date range
1300–2019
Unit
%

Sources and processing

International Labor Organization and historical sources – Shares and numbers employed by sector

This dataset was constructed by Our World in Data based on the primary dataset on labor force participation, published by the International Labor Organization (via the World Bank). This publishes data on labor statistics since 1991.

Data prior to 1991 has been compiled from various historical reconstructions. The sources for this dataset are described in detail here: https://ourworldindata.org/agri-employment-sources

Retrieved on
January 3, 2024
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
International Labor Organization (via the World Bank) and historical sources, compiled by Our World in Data (2024).

This dataset was constructed by Our World in Data based on the primary dataset on labor force participation, published by the International Labor Organization (via the World Bank). This publishes data on labor statistics since 1991.

Data prior to 1991 has been compiled from various historical reconstructions. The sources for this dataset are described in detail here: https://ourworldindata.org/agri-employment-sources

Retrieved on
January 3, 2024
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
International Labor Organization (via the World Bank) and historical sources, compiled by Our World in Data (2024).

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Share of the labor force employed in agriculture”. Our World in Data (2026). Data adapted from International Labor Organization and historical sources. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260512-085513/grapher/share-of-the-labor-force-employed-in-agriculture.html [online resource] (archived on May 12, 2026).

How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

International Labor Organization and historical sources (2024) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

International Labor Organization and historical sources (2024) – processed by Our World in Data. “Share of the labor force employed in agriculture” [dataset]. International Labor Organization and historical sources, “Shares and numbers employed by sector” [original data]. Retrieved May 13, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260512-085513/grapher/share-of-the-labor-force-employed-in-agriculture.html (archived on May 12, 2026).

Quick download

Download the data shown in this chart as a ZIP file containing a CSV file, metadata in JSON format, and a README. The CSV file can be opened in Excel, Google Sheets, and other data analysis tools.

Data API

Use these URLs to programmatically access this chart's data and configure your requests with the options below. Our documentation provides more information on how to use the API, and you can find a few code examples below.

Data URL (CSV format)
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-labor-force-employed-in-agriculture.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false
Metadata URL (JSON format)
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-labor-force-employed-in-agriculture.metadata.json?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false

Code examples

Examples of how to load this data into different data analysis tools.

Excel / Google Sheets
=IMPORTDATA("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-labor-force-employed-in-agriculture.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false")
Python with Pandas
import pandas as pd
import requests

# Fetch the data.
df = pd.read_csv("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-labor-force-employed-in-agriculture.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false", storage_options = {'User-Agent': 'Our World In Data data fetch/1.0'})

# Fetch the metadata
metadata = requests.get("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-labor-force-employed-in-agriculture.metadata.json?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false").json()
R
library(jsonlite)

# Fetch the data
df <- read.csv("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-labor-force-employed-in-agriculture.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false")

# Fetch the metadata
metadata <- fromJSON("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-labor-force-employed-in-agriculture.metadata.json?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false")
Stata
import delimited "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-labor-force-employed-in-agriculture.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false", encoding("utf-8") clear