Countries With the Highest Prevalence of Slavery

An estimated 50 million people were living in modern slavery as of 2021, according to the Walk Free's flagship report Global Slavery Index 2023. North Korea is the country with the highest rate of people experiencing modern slavery in 2023, with as many as 104 people living under these conditions out of every 1,000 inhabitants. It is followed by Eritrea with 90 people per 1,000 inhabitants, Mauritania with 32 per 1,000 and Saudi Arabia with 21 per 1,000.

In terms of the largest estimated absolute numbers though, India ranks first (11,050,000 people in modern slavery), followed by China (5,771,000), North Korea (2,696,000), Pakistan (2,349,000), Russia (1,899,000), Indonesia (1,833,000) and Nigeria (1,611,000).

Modern slavery includes forced labor, debt bondage, forced marriage, slavery and slavery-like practices, and human trafficking.