Ranked: Number of Agricultural Workers by Country

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Agriculture has long been the backbone of human civilization, providing sustenance and livelihood to billions of people across the globe.

As of 2021, an estimated 27% of the global workforce was employed in agriculture, though the sector represents only 4% of global GDP.

The graphic above uses 2019 employment and population data from the World Bank to rank the distribution of agricultural workers in the world’s most populated countries.

Being the most populous countries, India and China lead the ranking with 272 million and 229 million people employed in agriculture, respectively:

Though countries in Africa have fewer agricultural workers, they have a far greater share of agriculture in employment. Ethiopia (66%) and Tanzania (65%) had the highest share of agricultural workers amongst the most populated countries, with other low income and lower-middle income African countries close behind.

In fact, McKinsey estimates that more than 60% of sub-Saharan Africa’s entire population consists of smallholder farmers, with about 23% of sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP coming directly from agriculture.

In contrast, agriculture represents significantly less employment in high-income countries. The U.S. and Japan both have an estimated 3 million agricultural workers, accounting for only 3% and 4% of the total employed population, respectively.

In terms of gender balance, women on average represent 37% of all agricultural workers, with a majority share in just 20 countries within Africa and Asia.

Over the past century, agricultural workers have declined in number due to technological advances, urban migration, land use changes, and economic diversification.

Source: FAO

However, they still represent a quarter of the global workforce and even with the modernization of agriculture, workers are still necessary to meet a growing demand.

For instance, a study in Bioscience has suggested that agricultural production will need to increase by at least 25% to meet the food demands of the world’s population by 2050.

This article was published as a part of Visual Capitalist's Creator Program, which features data-driven visuals from some of our favorite Creators around the world.

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According to a recent report from Goldman Sachs, the balance of global economic power is projected to shift dramatically in the coming decades.

More specifically, analysts believe that Asia could soon become the largest regional contributor to world GDP, surpassing the traditional economic powerhouses grouped together in the Developed Markets (DM) category.

In the graphic above, we’ve visualized Goldman Sachs’ real GDP forecasts for the year 2050 using a voronoi diagram.

The following table includes a regional breakdown of expected real GDP in 2050. All figures are based on 2021 USD.

Based on these projections, Asia (ex DM) will represent 40% of global GDP, slightly ahead of Developed Markets’ expected share of 36%. This would mark a massive shift from 50 years ago (2000), when DMs represented over 77% of global GDP.

Focusing on Asia, China and India will account for the majority of the region’s expected GDP in 2050, though growth in China will have tapered off significantly. In fact, Goldman Sachs expects annual real GDP growth in the country to average 1.1% through the 2050s. This is surprisingly slower than America’s expected 1.4% annual growth during the same decade.

The fastest growing economies in Asia during the 2050s will be India (3.1% annually), Bangladesh (3.0% annually), and the Philippines (3.5% annually). These countries are expected to thrive thanks to their high population growth rates and relatively low median age, which translates into a larger work force.

Turning our attention to Latin America, we can see that the region will account for a relatively small 7% of global GDP in 2050. According to Goldman Sachs’ previous projections from 2011, many Latin American countries have underperformed over the past decade. For example, Brazil’s real GDP shrank from $2.7 trillion in 2010, to $1.5 trillion in 2020.

Because of these setbacks, Goldman Sachs believes Indonesia will be able to overtake Brazil as the world’s largest emerging market before 2050.

That said, Brazil’s economic ranking is still expected to climb above France and Canada by then, if these projections prove to be accurate.

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