Informal employment in Russia: how many people work outside registered companies
In 2025, 15.1 million people worked in Russia's informal sector, which is 20.3% of all employed. One in five people who have a job at all get it not from a registered organization, but from an individual entrepreneur, a private person, or for themselves. Over ten years the number of such people has hardly changed: in 2015 it was 14.9 million. Below is the dynamics by year, the industries where informality is most common, the difference between men and women, urban and rural areas, and also what Rosstat calls the informal sector. The charts open on the website in interactive form.
What is considered the informal sector
An important caveat right away, because the word “informal” is read differently. Rosstat does not count those who work “without a contract” or receive a “grey” salary. The criterion is different: the employer has no legal entity registration. The count includes individual entrepreneurs, their hired workers, people who work for themselves without registration, and family members helping in someone else’s business. If you are an employee of an LLC with a white‑paper salary, you are in the formal sector. If you are a seller for an individual entrepreneur, even with an employment contract, you are informal by Rosstat’s methodology.
Therefore the figures in the article do not measure “shadow” employment in the everyday sense. They show where in the economy people work outside legal entities. The definition is given in the footnote to the table of the share of informal employment outside agriculture.
There is also an overlap: of 15,113 thousand people, 14,387 thousand are employed only in the informal sector, and another 726 thousand combine it with formal work (data for 2025).
How many people are in the informal sector by year
Rosstat's series starts in 2015. At that time, 14,874 thousand people worked in the informal sector. The peak came in 2016, 15,426 thousand, then the number fell and in 2023 reached a minimum: 13,444 thousand. In 2024 it jumped to 15,213 thousand, that is a 13.2% increase over the year, and in 2025 it was 15,113 thousand.
The 2024 jump looks sharp, and it is driven by more than one factor. Part of it is due to the sector’s own structure, described below: in 2023‑2024 the biggest growth was in other services, culture, medicine and professional services. Rosstat does not explain the reasons for the growth, so I do not draw conclusions about them. The full series broken down by industry is in the table "Number of people employed in the informal sector by type of activity".
What share of the employed works informally
In 2025, according to the Rosstat table by type of activity, the informal sector accounted for 20.3% of total employment. This share covers the whole economy, including agriculture.
A separate, longer series exists for the non‑agricultural sector from the annual report on sustainable development goals. There the share rose from 12.0% in 2010 to 17.4% in 2019 and 16.9% in 2020. These numbers cannot be compared with 20.3%: they have a different base, without the countryside and without agriculture.
The chart shows that the growth was steady throughout the decade from 2010 to 2019, and then stopped. The annual report data end in 2020, so the series must be continued beyond that using another table with a different base.
Which industries have the most informal employment
In 2025, the largest number of people in the informal sector worked in trade: 3,845 thousand people, 25.4% of the whole sector. In second place agriculture, 2,142 thousand (14.2%), in third other services, 1,948 thousand (12.9%). Next come transport and storage (10.5%), manufacturing (9.7%) and construction (8.7%).
But absolute numbers tell one story, while the share of informals within an industry tells another:
- in other services informally work 83.7% of employees: haircuts, repairs, tutoring, personal care and similar;
- in agriculture 53.8%;
- in trade 35.8%, in hotels and catering 32.9%;
- in construction 26.8%, in transport 24.1%;
- in manufacturing 13.8%;
- in health care 6.3%, in finance 3.8%, in education 3.1%;
- in mining 1.6%, in energy 1.3%.
That is, where large enterprises and licences are needed, the informal sector is almost absent. Where a person can start a business alone, it occupies a larger part of the industry.
How the structure changed over ten years
Three industries changed the most. They are shown in one chart.
Agriculture lost 39%: in 2015 it had 3,510 thousand informal employees, in 2025 – 2,142 thousand. The main drop occurred in 2017, from 3,649 to 2,452 thousand in one year. Trade fell by 17%, from 4,626 to 3,845 thousand.
Other services, on the contrary, grew 2.4 times, from 804 to 1,948 thousand. In 2024 alone, 616 thousand people were added (from 1,296 to 1,912, +47.5%): this is more than a third of the total sector growth that year (1,769 thousand). Culture and sport also rose noticeably (from 116 to 270 thousand), professional and administrative services (from 526 to 716), health care and social services (from 256 to 355). Where all these people went and why, Rosstat does not disclose; the timing of the growth coincides with the spread of self‑employment, but the tables do not confirm this, so it remains only a hypothesis.
Men and women in the informal sector
In 2025, out of 15,113 thousand informal workers, 7,900 thousand were men (52.3%) and 7,214 thousand were women (47.7%). The numbers are almost equal, but they work in different places. This is visible from the distribution of employment by industry and gender:
| Industry | Among men | Among women |
|---|---|---|
| Trade | 21.8% | 29.4% |
| Other services | 4.5% | 22.1% |
| Agriculture | 16.6% | 11.6% |
| Transport and storage | 18.7% | 1.5% |
| Construction | 15.5% | 1.3% |
| Health and social services | 0.8% | 4.4% |
One in five informally employed women (22.1%) works in other services, while construction and transport each account for 1–2% for women. For men, on the contrary: transport and construction together make up more than a third (34.2%).
City and countryside
Of all informal workers in 2025, 10,470 thousand lived in the city (69.3%) and 4,643 thousand in the countryside (30.7%). But the structure differs. Among rural informal workers, 33.9% work in agriculture, while in the city only 5.4% do. The urban informal sector consists of trade (27.3%), other services (15.3%) and transport (11.1%).
Seasonality is also noticeable, the quarterly table shows it for agriculture. In the first quarter of 2025, 1,747 thousand people worked in the informal agriculture sector, and in the third quarter 2,530 thousand. The total number for the year varied less: from 14,903 thousand in the first quarter to 15,498 thousand in the third.
Who are these people: age, hours, status
By age, according to the 2023 data, of the 13,444 thousand informally employed, 30.8% were aged 30–39, 25.7% were 40–49, 18.8% were 50–59 and 15.4% were 20–29. Those older than 60 worked 8.0%, and under 20 only 1.3%.
This is not a side job of a couple of hours. Two thirds (68.8%) worked 31 to 40 hours per week, and on average each employee worked 36.2 hours. Less than 20 hours were worked by 13.1%.
And another indicator, by employment status: in 2024, 5,208 thousand people (34.2%) were independent workers, i.e., self‑employed. The remaining 10,005 thousand (65.8%) were dependent, i.e., employees: of individual entrepreneurs or private persons. So the informal sector mainly consists not of self‑employed people, but of those employed by small businesses.
Questions and answers
How many informally employed people are there in Russia?
In 2025 there were 15,113 thousand people, that is 20.3% of all employed. In 2024 there were 15,213 thousand, and in 2023 there were 13,444 thousand.
Is informal employment the same as work without a contract?
No. Rosstat looks not at the contract but at the employer: if the employer does not have legal entity registration, the worker is considered employed in the informal sector. With a labour contract with an individual entrepreneur you are still in the informal sector by the methodology, and without a contract in a limited liability company you are not.
In which industry are there the most informal workers?
In trade: 3,845 thousand people in 2025. But by share, other services lead, where 83.7% of the employed work informally.
Is informal employment growing or falling?
From 2015 to 2025 the number of people changed little (14,874 and 15,113 thousand), although there was a dip to 13,444 thousand in the middle of the period. The share of the non‑agricultural sector grew from 12.0% in 2010 to 16.9% in 2020.
Who is more numerous in the informal sector, men or women?
Slightly more men: 7,900 thousand versus 7,214 thousand in 2025. Their industries differ: women are more often in trade and other services, men in transport and construction.
Briefly
- In 2025, the informal sector employed 15.1 million people, 20.3% of all employed. Over ten years the number changed little, but in 2023 fell to 13.4 million.
- The informal sector according to Rosstat is defined by the employer not having a legal entity. It is not reduced to “grey” wages.
- Informality is strongest in other services (83.7% of the sector) and agriculture (53.8%), and numerically largest in trade (3.8 million people).
- Over ten years agriculture lost 39% of informal workers, trade 17%, while other services grew 2.4 times.
- Two thirds of informally employed work as employees, and on average each works 36.2 hours per week: this is regular employment, not a side job.