Nearly one in every 150 people in the world was held in forced labour or a forced marriage in 2021, and the latest global estimates show the number rising rather than falling.
Updated October 13, 2026. Written from the sources listed below, not independently peer-reviewed.
On an average day in 2021, how many people worldwide were living in modern slavery?
49.6 million
People in modern slavery
On an average day: 27.6 million in forced labour and 22 million in forced marriage, or 6.4 people per 1,000. Modelled from national surveys and case data; no later global estimate has been published.
Data year 2021. Source: International Labour Organization, 2022
US$236 billion
Illegal profits from forced labour each year
Forced labour in the private economy, close to US$10,000 per victim and US$64 billion (37%) more than in 2014. Commercial sexual exploitation accounts for 73% of the total. Estimate in 2021 values, published in 2024.
Data year 2021. Source: International Labour Organization, 2024
+47%
Rise in detected victims of trafficking for forced labour
Between 2019 and 2022, among victims identified by authorities; all detected victims rose by 25%. Forced labour became the largest detected form (42% of victims). Counts reflect detection efforts, not total prevalence.
Data year 2022. Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2024
Unit: million people
The two most recent global estimates by the ILO, Walk Free and IOM, each describing an average day in that year. Between them, forced marriage rose from 15.4 to 22 million and forced labour from 24.9 to 27.6 million. Methods were refined between editions, so the authors advise caution when comparing detailed breakdowns, and the 2021 figures only partly reflect the effects of the pandemic. No newer global estimate had been published by October 2026.
The authors of the global estimates read SDG target 8.7 as a commitment to end modern slavery among children by 2025 and for everyone by 2030. Instead, the number of people in modern slavery rose by 9.3 million between 2016 and 2021, and the authors conclude that the situation is not improving. No later global estimate exists to show whether the trend has since turned, and the 2025 date for children has passed.
Women and girls make up 54% of all people in modern slavery. More than two-thirds of the people in forced marriages are female, and nearly four in five people in forced commercial sexual exploitation are women or girls.
Source: International Labour Organization, 2022Adult migrant workers are more than three times as likely to be in forced labour in the private economy as other adult workers: nearly 14 per 1,000 migrant workers, compared with 4.1 per 1,000 non-migrant workers.
Source: International Labour Organization, 2022An estimated 3.3 million children were in forced labour in 2021, more than half of them in commercial sexual exploitation, and about 9 million children were in forced marriages. The authors warn that the child forced labour figure may be only the tip of the iceberg.
Source: International Labour Organization, 2022Children made up 38% of the trafficking victims detected worldwide in 2022. The number of detected child victims was 31% higher than in 2019, and for girls the increase was 38%.
Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2024Each country is shaded by its latest available value, so you can see where the gap is widest. Hover or tap a country, search for one, or open the full table.
Loading country values…
Values in % of women aged 20–24.
Child marriage, which the global estimates count as a form of forced marriage, from household surveys; this is not a measure of modern slavery as a whole, because no open country-level data on forced labour exist and Walk Free's country prevalence figures are modelled estimates that are not available as open data. Values are the latest survey year per country, so years differ (2010 to 2025; about one country in ten has a survey from before 2015), surveys older than 2010 are not shown, and about 140 countries have data.
Source: UNICEF and DHS Program, via World Bank Open Data. Latest year available per country; years differ.
Values load from World Bank Open Data. Simplified Natural Earth borders; they imply no position on disputed territories.
Instead of one “percent solved” score, DO GOOD rates three separate dimensions. A problem can have mature solutions that still reach too few people. These ratings are an editorial reading of the sources on this page, not a measured index.
Has the situation improved in the real world?
LowThe number of people in modern slavery rose from 40.3 million in 2016 to 49.6 million in 2021. Forced marriage grew from 15.4 to 22 million, and the prevalence of forced labour edged up from 3.4 to 3.5 per 1,000 people.
How mature and validated are the available solutions?
ModerateCore tools such as criminal law, labour inspection, fair recruitment, social protection and a minimum marriage age of 18 are well established in international standards, but there is little rigorous evidence on which measures reduce prevalence. Supply-chain laws and import bans are recent, and the EU's ban on products made with forced labour only applies from December 2027.
How widely are effective solutions actually used?
LowWalk Free's 2023 index found that 137 countries had made human trafficking a crime but only 50 had criminalised forced marriage, and that even the governments with the strongest responses had largely stagnated.
Global figures are modelled from 68 forced labour surveys and 75 forced marriage surveys plus case data, and the latest refer to 2021. The authors say forced labour of children, forced labour at sea and the effects of the pandemic are probably understated.
The only two comparable global estimates show an increase of 9.3 million people between 2016 and 2021, and the authors expect overlapping crises from the pandemic, armed conflict and climate change to raise the risk further.
Modern slavery is an umbrella term for situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception or abuse of power. The international estimates count two main forms: forced labour and forced marriage. On an average day in 2021, an estimated 49.6 million people were in modern slavery, nearly one in every 150 people on Earth: 27.6 million in forced labour and 22 million in forced marriages. That is 9.3 million more than in 2016. No region is spared. Asia and the Pacific has the largest number of people affected, the Arab States the highest rate (10.1 per 1,000 people), and more than half of all forced labour takes place in upper-middle- or high-income countries. Private individuals, groups and companies impose 86% of forced labour; state authorities impose the remaining 14%.
In the private economy, five sectors account for 87% of adult forced labour where the type of work is known: services, manufacturing, construction, agriculture and domestic work. Withholding of wages is the most common form of coercion, reported by 36% of adults in forced labour in the private economy, and the ILO estimates that forced labour generates US$236 billion in illegal profits a year, money that should have gone to workers. Most forced marriages are arranged by parents or other relatives and are often linked to economic hardship. The authors of the global estimates warn that the COVID-19 pandemic, armed conflicts and climate change are increasing extreme poverty and forced and unsafe migration, which raises the risk of every form of modern slavery.
Modern slavery is not a defined legal term in most countries. It brings together several practices that are defined in international law. SDG target 8.7 calls for immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour and end modern slavery and human trafficking, target 16.2 for an end to the exploitation and trafficking of children, and target 5.3 for the elimination of child, early and forced marriage. Four concepts and measures matter most:
Forced labour
Based on the ILO Forced Labour Convention of 1930 (No. 29), forced labour is work or service taken from a person under the threat of a penalty and not offered voluntarily. Both elements must be present: the person did not freely agree to the work, and is held in it by coercion such as withheld wages, threats or violence. The estimates include forced labour in the private economy, forced commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour imposed by the state.
Forced marriage
A forced marriage is one that a person was made to enter without giving their consent. Because a child cannot give full, free and informed consent, the global estimates regard child marriage as a form of forced marriage, but they do not capture every child marriage, so these are only partly included.
Human trafficking
Trafficking in persons, defined in the UN Palermo Protocol, means recruiting, moving or holding people through coercion or deception in order to exploit them. It overlaps with forced labour and forced marriage but is not identical. UNODC reports the victims that authorities in 156 countries actually detect (SDG indicator 16.2.2), which shows trends in identified cases and enforcement rather than the total number of people trafficked.
Survey-based global estimates
The ILO, Walk Free and IOM model global numbers from 68 nationally representative forced labour surveys and 75 forced marriage surveys covering 2017 to 2021, combined with anonymised case data from the Counter Trafficking Data Collaborative for forms that household surveys miss. The result describes how many people are in modern slavery on an average day.
What works
Clear laws against forced labour, labour inspectors who can reach high-risk sectors, trained enforcement officials and better links between labour inspection and criminal justice make exploitation riskier and less profitable. The ILO argues that this investment is needed to stem illegal profits it estimates at US$236 billion a year and to hold perpetrators to account.
Limits
The ILO stresses that forced labour cannot be ended through law enforcement alone; enforcement has to be combined with action on root causes and protection of victims. Many labour inspectorates do not yet reach the high-risk sectors where forced labour is found.
What works
Adult migrant workers face more than three times the forced labour risk of other workers. The global estimates call for fair and ethical recruitment, respect for the rights of migrants at every stage of migration and international cooperation.
Limits
Recruitment often runs through intermediaries in several countries that no single government controls. Where a worker's right to stay depends on one employer, leaving an abusive job can mean losing legal status.
What works
Australia, the United Kingdom and California require larger businesses to report publicly on forced labour risks in their supply chains, and France, Norway and Germany require companies to carry out human rights due diligence. Several G20 governments also bar forced labour from public procurement. The stakes are large: G20 countries import more than US$468 billion a year of products at risk of being made with forced labour.
Limits
Reporting laws have been criticised for not setting binding standards, Walk Free found no evidence that any G20 country had enforced penalties under such laws in the previous five years, and only France gives affected people a legal route to claim remedy. The European Union has since scaled back its own corporate due diligence directive, limiting it to the very largest companies.
What works
Poverty, debt and lack of income security leave people with little choice but to accept exploitative work, and forced marriage is often linked to economic hardship. The global estimates recommend extending social protection, including basic floors, to all workers and their families as part of prevention, alongside access to decent work.
Limits
The direct effect of social protection on forced labour and forced marriage has rarely been measured, and benefits need years of stable funding before they change the choices families face.
What works
Core recommendations are raising the legal age of marriage to 18 without exceptions, making sure girls can complete school and building the agency of women and girls. Because parents arranged 73% of forced marriages and other relatives a further 16%, prevention works with families and communities as well as through law.
Limits
Laws are hard to apply to informal or unregistered unions, and many people in forced marriages depend on their spouse or family financially. Legal change without community support and services that make it safe to leave has limited effect.
Promising, but not proven at scale. The stage shows how far each approach has come; it is not a recommendation.
The United States has long barred imports made with forced labour, and Canada tightened its rules in 2021. The European Union has adopted a regulation that will ban products made with forced labour from being sold in or exported from the EU from 14 December 2027, and guidelines and a risk database are now available to companies. Whether such bans improve conditions for the workers concerned, rather than only shifting trade, is not yet known.
Researchers have used satellite imagery to map brick kilns in South Asia, a sector associated with bonded labour, and machine learning on vessel-monitoring data to flag fishing vessels with a high risk of forced labour. These tools can help authorities decide where to look but cannot confirm abuse on their own.
In some supply chains, worker organisations and the brands or retailers that buy from employers sign binding agreements with independent monitoring, complaint channels and consequences for suppliers who break the rules. They operate in a few sectors and countries, and evidence on their effect on forced labour is still limited.
Organisations that assist survivors combine their case records in shared databases that protect identities, such as the Counter Trafficking Data Collaborative. These data already feed into the global estimates for forms that household surveys cannot reach, but they only cover people who come into contact with support services.
Implementation gap
Trafficking for forced labour has overtaken sexual exploitation as the most commonly detected form, at 42% of detected victims in 2022, and detections rose by 47% from 2019. Yet most trafficking convictions worldwide still concern sexual exploitation, and convictions for forced labour remain far fewer.
Coordination gap
About 3.9 million people were in forced labour imposed by state authorities in 2021, and 55% of these cases involved abuse of compulsory prison labour. National enforcement cannot help when the state itself is responsible, so the main levers are international pressure, trade measures and cooperation between governments.
Technology gap
Raw materials often pass through many traders and processors before they reach a finished product, which makes their origin hard to verify. Electronics, the largest category of at-risk imports into G20 countries, are worth an estimated US$243.6 billion a year, followed by garments at US$147.9 billion.
Implementation gap
No G20 country has taken comprehensive action to stop sourcing goods made with forced labour, and Walk Free found no evidence that any had enforced penalties under its supply-chain laws in the previous five years. Rules for public purchasing can also be set aside when demand surges, as happened with protective equipment during the pandemic.
Coordination gap
The pandemic, armed conflicts and climate change are increasing extreme poverty and forced and unsafe migration, which raise the risk of all forms of modern slavery. Labour migration is governed separately by each country of origin and destination, while recruiters and employers operate across borders, so migrant workers remain far more exposed than nationals.
Knowledge gap
The latest global estimates refer to 2021 and rest on surveys in a limited number of countries. Forced labour of children, forced labour on fishing vessels (estimated at 128,000 fishers, likely a significant undercount) and the full effect of the pandemic are thought to be understated, and detection data mostly show where authorities look.
Unresolved questions, not vetted breakthroughs. Answering any of them would change what is possible.
Which combinations of enforcement, social protection, fair recruitment and community programmes measurably reduce the number of people in forced labour or forced marriage, rather than only increasing the number of cases detected?
Do due diligence laws and import bans improve wages, freedom and remedy for the workers concerned, or do they mainly shift trade and push risk to less visible suppliers?
How can forced labour of children, at sea, in commercial sexual exploitation and imposed by states be measured reliably and more often than once every five years, without putting respondents at risk?
How do conflict, displacement and climate-related disasters change the risk of forced labour and forced marriage, and which humanitarian and social protection measures prevent it?
Find the national modern slavery or trafficking helpline for your country. If you think someone is in immediate danger, contact the emergency services rather than intervening yourself.
Many large companies publish statements on forced labour risks in their supply chains. Read them for the brands you buy most and ask what they do when they find problems, not only whether they run audits.
Consider giving to organisations that offer survivors shelter, legal help and a way to earn a living, and that report openly on what happens to the people they support over time.
Find out whether your country has ratified the 2014 Protocol to the ILO Forced Labour Convention, sets the minimum age of marriage at 18 without exceptions and enforces its supply-chain laws, and raise gaps with your elected representatives.
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International Labour Organization (ILO), Walk Free and International Organization for Migration (IOM), published 2022
Latest global estimates (reference year 2021, published September 2022): 49.6 million people in modern slavery, 27.6 million in forced labour and 22 million in forced marriage, with comparisons to 2016 and breakdowns by sex, age, migration status, region, income group and form. A methodology report was added in October 2025; no newer estimate had been published by October 2026.
International Labour Organization (news release, 19 March 2024), published 2024
ILO estimate of illegal profits from forced labour in the private economy, in 2021 values: US$236 billion a year, US$64 billion (37%) more than in 2014, close to US$10,000 per victim, with breakdowns by form, region and sector and recommendations on enforcement, labour inspection and root causes.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), December 2024, published 2024
Latest edition (the 2026 edition was announced but not yet published in October 2026), covering 156 countries and victims detected up to 2022 (or most recent year): detected victims up 25% on 2019, forced labour victims up 47%, child victims up 31%, and data on convictions.
Walk Free, published 2023
Modelled country prevalence estimates for 160 countries (based on the 2021 global estimates, with imputation for countries without surveys) and an assessment of government responses, including the number of countries that criminalise trafficking and forced marriage. Still the latest edition in October 2026.
Walk Free, published 2023
Value of products at risk of being made with forced labour that G20 countries import (more than US$468 billion, led by electronics and garments) and a review of G20 supply-chain, procurement and import laws and their enforcement.
European Commission, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, published 2026
Official page on the EU regulation adopted on 19 November 2024 that bans products made with forced labour from being sold in or exported from the EU from 14 December 2027, with a preparedness package launched on 30 June 2026, implementation guidelines and a risk database.