Supply chain ethics is measured through both harm and response: the number of people exposed to forced or child labour, the share connected to exports, and the extent to which companies and governments identify, prevent and remedy impacts. The latest available figures combine global estimates for 2020 and 2021, modelled 2015 supply-chain linkages, and corporate and policy reporting covered by the OECD’s 2026 report.
Contents
- Forced labour worldwide
- Child labour and ethical supply chains
- Exports and upstream tiers
- Corporate due diligence
- Worker voice and remedy
- Government regulation and procurement
Forced labour worldwide
The ILO estimated that 27.6 million people were in forced labour on any given day in 2021, equivalent to 3.5 people per 1,000 population. These are the latest global estimates presented on the ILO’s official data page and were published in the 2022 Global Estimates. (ILO, Data and research on forced labour)
Private actors imposed about 86% of forced-labour situations in 2021. Within the estimate, 17.3 million people were exploited in forced labour in the private economy outside forced commercial sexual exploitation, while 6.3 million people were in forced commercial sexual exploitation. State-imposed forced labour affected an estimated 3.9 million people. (ILO, Data and research on forced labour)
The estimates also show how exposure is distributed across groups and regions:
- Children accounted for 12% of people in forced labour, or about 3.3 million children, in 2021.
- Women and girls represented 39.4% of people in forced labour.
- Migrant workers faced about three times the risk of forced labour compared with non-migrant workers.
- Asia and the Pacific contained an estimated 15.1 million people in forced labour, the largest regional total.
- The Arab States had the highest forced-labour prevalence, at 5.3 people per 1,000 population.
Forced labour also has a large illicit financial dimension. The ILO estimated that it generated US$236 billion in illegal profits annually in its 2024 estimate. This figure is from the ILO’s 2024 Profits and Poverty study, so it should not be read as a measurement from the 2021 population estimate. (ILO, Data and research on forced labour)
Child labour and ethical supply chains
The ILO’s 2020 global estimates counted 160 million children in child labour worldwide, or roughly 10% of children. About 79 million were in hazardous work. The estimates cover children aged 5–17 and draw on more than 100 national household surveys covering about two-thirds of the world’s children. (ILO, 2020 Global estimates of child labour - Frequently Asked Questions)
Sub-Saharan Africa had the largest regional total, with 86.6 million children in child labour, and a prevalence of 23.9%. Other regional totals were 26.3 million in Central and Southern Asia, 24.3 million in Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, 10.1 million in Northern Africa and Western Asia, 8.2 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 3.8 million in Europe and Northern America. These figures describe the 2020 global estimate, not a current-year count. (ILO, 2020 Global estimates of child labour - Frequently Asked Questions)
| Indicator | Estimate | Period or scope |
|---|---|---|
| Children in child labour | 160 million | Worldwide, 2020 |
| Children in hazardous work | 79 million | Worldwide, 2020 |
| Share of child labour in agriculture | 70% | Worldwide, 2020 |
| Child labour within families | 72% | Worldwide, 2020 |
| Children in child labour who were employees | 17% | Worldwide, 2020 |
Agriculture accounted for 70% of all child labour globally in 2020. Family work was also central: 72% of all child labour occurred within families, primarily on family farms or in other family microenterprises, while employees accounted for 17%. Between 2016 and 2020, the number of children aged 5–11 in child labour rose by 16.8 million. (ILO, 2020 Global estimates of child labour - Frequently Asked Questions)
Exports and upstream tiers
Supply-chain responsibility can extend beyond the site where a product is assembled. An ILO global input-output analysis estimated that, across regions, 9% to 26% of child labour was linked to exports in 2015. Of the child labour contributing to exports, between 28% and 43% did so indirectly through preceding supply-chain tiers. These are modelled snapshots rather than direct counts of individual supply-chain workers. (ILO, Measuring child labour, forced labour and human trafficking in global supply chains)
The model reported different export linkages by region. In Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, 26% of child labour was linked to exports. The estimate was 22% in Latin America and the Caribbean, 12% in Sub-Saharan Africa, 9% in Northern Africa and Western Asia, and 12% in Central and Southern Asia. In Latin America and the Caribbean, 16% of value added went to the export sector alongside the 22% child-labour linkage estimate. (ILO, Measuring child labour, forced labour and human trafficking in global supply chains)
Brazil illustrates why estimates need their model definition retained. For 2011, the estimated share of child labour linked to exports was 17.3% in the inter-country model and 14.1% in the detailed national model. The difference does not establish which number is universally preferable; it shows that the result depends on the analytical approach. (ILO, Measuring child labour, forced labour and human trafficking in global supply chains)
Corporate due diligence
The OECD’s 2026 Responsible Business Outlook reviewed the 10,000 largest companies listed on global stock markets. In that population, 69% had a public commitment on at least one responsible-business-conduct issue, while 36% had cross-cutting responsible-business-conduct commitments. These percentages describe reported practices or disclosures in the report’s defined population, not all businesses. (OECD, Responsible Business Outlook 2026)
The distribution of reported due-diligence practices suggests a gap between formal systems and impact-focused action. Policies and management systems represented 45% of the practices considered, while impact-addressing measures represented less than 20%. About 50% of companies reported social or environmental criteria for selecting suppliers, but fewer than 20% reported evaluating supplier risk according to social or environmental criteria. (OECD, Responsible Business Outlook 2026)
Only 25% reported training or collaborating with suppliers to improve environmental or social performance, and 7% reported integrating their social supply-chain policy into purchasing practices. Fewer than 5% disclosed workplace-health-and-safety improvements in their supply chains. In a roughly 450-company subsample, about 70% reported social audits covering tier-1 suppliers, compared with about 35% covering tier-2 or tier-3 suppliers. (OECD, Responsible Business Outlook 2026)
Worker voice and remedy
Worker and stakeholder participation was reported less often than broad public commitments. Only 8% of large listed companies reported engaging stakeholders on human-rights issues in the OECD’s 2026 report. A formal human-rights grievance mechanism was reported by 17%, and 10% committed to providing remedy to people affected by human-rights impacts. (OECD, Responsible Business Outlook 2026)
The policy environment shows broader attention to remedy, although that does not mean every company provides it in practice. Thirty-six countries adhering to the OECD Guidelines had taken at least one measure to address barriers to judicial remedy. Direct or indirect expectations to provide remedy or establish a grievance mechanism appeared in about 50% of due-diligence legislation introduced across adhering countries. (OECD, Responsible Business Outlook 2026)
Government regulation and procurement
Due-diligence-related regulation has expanded across the jurisdictions tracked by the OECD. By the 2026 report, 84% of OECD Member countries had introduced such regulation, as had 67% of countries adhering to the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. OECD Member countries with due-diligence-related requirements represented approximately 55% of global GDP. (OECD, Responsible Business Outlook 2026)
Trade agreements also increasingly include responsible-business-conduct language. Since 2020, 67 of 186 trade and investment agreements signed by adhering countries, or 36%, included a responsible-business-conduct clause. Of those 67 agreements, 73% were signed with countries that do not adhere to the OECD Guidelines. (OECD, Responsible Business Outlook 2026)
Public procurement is another channel for ethical supply-chain expectations. Thirty-two countries adhering to the OECD Guidelines reported that their public-procurement frameworks consider responsible business conduct. In 2024, more than US$8 trillion in public-procurement spending occurred in countries where mandatory due-diligence measures applied to public bodies explicitly or implicitly. That amount represented approximately 80% of public-procurement spending across countries adhering to the OECD Guidelines. (OECD, Responsible Business Outlook 2026)