The bar chart illustrates the proportion of self-employed individuals in five different countries during the years 1998 and 2008.
Overall, it is evident that Turkey had the highest percentage of people working independently in both years, while the Russian Republic had the lowest.
In 1998, Turkey peaked at about 57%, but this figure decreased to nearly 40% by 2008. Greece had the second highest proportion of self-employed individuals, with just over 41% in 1998, which then declined to approximately one-third in 2008.
Both the Russian Republic and Slovakia had figures below 10% in 1998. After ten years, the Russian Republic saw a slight increase from roughly 5% to about 6%, while Slovakia experienced a more noticeable rise from nearly 6% to over 10%. In the Czech Republic, the percentage of people wanting to become freelancers was just over 10% in 1998 and increased to about 15% a decade later.