{"id":4877,"date":"2025-07-06T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mapasmilhaud.com\/?p=4877"},"modified":"2025-07-05T13:37:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T11:37:09","slug":"the-underground-economy-in-the-world-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mapasmilhaud.com\/en\/mapas-de-datos\/la-economia-sumergida-en-el-mundo-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"The global shadow economy (2025)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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This map, created by\u00a0Joyce Ma<\/a>\u00a0for the website\u00a0Visual Capitalist<\/a>,shows the percentage of the underground economy in each country in the world, according to data from a study<\/a> published by Ernst and Young in March 2025, with data from 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 %).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources<\/h3>\n\n\n\n