PSA data showed that 513,650 working children were involved in child labor in 2025, slightly higher than the 509,160 recorded in 2024 but lower than the 678,360 in 2023.
According to the PSA’s Survey on Children, “working children” is the broader category, and “child laborers” is a subset of it.
Working children are aged 5 to 17 who engage in economic activity, paid or unpaid, for at least one hour during the reference week, while child laborers are those whose work involves conditions that the law prohibits or restricts for minors.
Boys continued to account for the majority of working children, making up 61.6 percent of the total, while girls represented 38.4 percent. Among child laborers, boys comprised 72.7 percent or 373,650.
Biggest employer, services
The services sector remained the largest employer of working children at 48.7 percent, followed by agriculture at 41.2 percent and industry at 10.1 percent. However, agriculture accounted for the biggest share of child laborers at 65.5 percent.
Children aged 15 to 17 years old made up the largest portion of both working children and child laborers, accounting for 73.5 percent and 80.5 percent, respectively. The PSA said the figures highlight the continuing need for stronger measures to protect children from unsafe work while addressing economic pressures that push minors into employment.
