Are US women or men more likely to be self-employed?
Self-employment as a share of each sex in work. A first look at the business-ownership question, pending the Census business data.
Women
3.8
% of employment
Men
8
% of employment
Difference
4.2
percentage points higher for men
Figures for 2025, the most recent year in the series.
The shaded band is the gap, measured in % of employment. It was widest in 1991 at
8, narrowest in 2024 at
4.2, and stood at 4.2 in 2025.
Series runs 1991–2025, 35 years with both sexes reported.
What this number counts
Self-employed as a share of total employment for that sex: employers, own-account workers, members of producers’ co-operatives and contributing family workers.
The denominator is people in work of that sex, not the whole population.
What this number does not say
Self-employment is not business ownership. It includes a sole trader with no employees and excludes someone who owns a company but draws a salary from it. For ownership of employer firms, the Census Annual Business Survey is the right source and this is not a substitute for it.
It does not say anything about size. A one-person operation and a firm with a hundred staff both reduce to one self-employed person here.
Contributing family workers are included, which in some countries dominates the female figure and makes cross-country comparison misleading.
It is a modelled ILO estimate, not a direct count. The International Labour Organization fills gaps between national surveys with a statistical model, so single-year movements are less meaningful than the shape of the series.
Source
World Bank World Development Indicators. Compiled by the World Bank from UN agencies, the ILO and national statistical sources. Indicators SL.EMP.SELF.FE.ZS · SL.EMP.SELF.MA.ZS.