“While chattel slavery has been formally abolished worldwide, other forms of forced labor persist. Thankfully, though, they appear to be diminishing. Using data from the Varieties of Democracy Project, researchers at Our World in Data judged that just 9 countries still practiced large-scale forced labor in 2024, the lowest number in history,” reports The Doomslayer.
The 9 nations where forced labor remains common are Afghanistan, Eritrea, Eswatini, Laos, Mauritania, North Korea, Qatar, South Sudan, and Sudan.
That’s a big reversal from the past, in which most countries did have forced labor — Only 9 nations did not have histories of forced labor since the late 1700s.
Our World in Data explains:
Just nine countries did not have large-scale forced labor at any time since the late 18th century.
After a small number of countries reduced forced labor substantially in the early 1800s, the rest of the 19th century, and the first decades of the 20th, saw steady successes in the fight for abolition.
Progress accelerated in the mid-20th century. In just a few decades, dozens of countries abolished large-scale forced labor: at the end of World War II, almost 100 countries still had such systems in place. Only one generation later, by 1975, that number had fallen to 31. In recent decades, the number of countries where forced labor is common has continued to fall, though at a slower pace.
In 2024, there were nine countries with large-scale slavery.
A decade ago, slavery was common in more nations than today, as you can see from the map of the world toward the top of this blog post, which shows nations with higher frequencies of slavery shaded in darker hues (reflecting slavery rates back then).
