This map, created by Joyce Ma for the website Visual Capitalist,shows the percentage of the underground economy in each country in the world, according to data from a study published by Ernst and Young in March 2025, with data from 2023.
This map shows the variance between countries, using darker colours for countries where the percentage is higher and lighter colours where it is lower. Three countries in the world have a shadow economy that accounts for more than half of the country's economy: Sierra Leone (65.1%), Niger (56.1%) and Nepal (51.1%).
At the opposite end of the table, with less than 2.5 %, are three Persian Gulf countries: the United Arab Emirates (2.1 %), Qatar (2.2 %) and Bahrain (2.5 %). The North American country with the best score is Canada (4.5 %), the best in Europe is Ireland (5.1 %) and the best in South America is Guyana (11.8 %).
According to the study, the percentage of the underground economy, which also includes all types of illegal activities, has steadily declined from 17.7% in 2000 to 11.8% in 2023.
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