Employment & wages · Unemployment

Unemployment rate

Share of the labour force that is without work but available for and seeking employment (ILO modelled estimate).

% of labour force · Annual · 194 of 218 countries (89 %) · 1950–2026

Ranking Download CSV

World average (population-weighted): 5.1 %; across 185 countries, 2025
Latest observation: 2026; forecast → 2031
Source updated: 4 Sep 2026
CountryAtlas refreshed: 11 Sep 2026; Snapshot 20260911T072322Z

World map

One value per country for the selected year. Hatched = no data.

No data available

Trend

Aggregate across the countries of a group, year by year. Computed by CountryAtlas from country values — no published aggregate is used.

Group

Not enough countries to aggregate this indicator for World.

Highest and lowest

The five leaders and the five trailing countries, 2025.

Full ranking →

Top 5

1Qatar
0.1 %
2Cambodia
0.3 %
3Niger
0.4 %
4Thailand
0.8 %
5Burundi
0.9 %

Source: World Bank — WDI · SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS

Bottom 5

181Gabon
20.2 %
182Botswana
24.5 %
183Djibouti
26.0 %
184South Africa
32.4 %
185Eswatini
34.2 %

Source: World Bank — WDI · SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS

Compare countries

Pick up to five countries. Defaults to the three largest economies with data.

No series for the selected countries.

Definition

Definition: Share of the labour force that is without work but available for and seeking employment (ILO modelled estimate).
Unit: % of labour force (%)
Frequency: Annual
Aggregation: none · Lower is better
Valid range: 0 – 60

Sources & provenance

Every value on this page comes from one of these series, chosen per country by priority.

Priority #1
World BankWDISL.UEM.TOTL.ZSok
187 countries · 6,531 obs. · → 2025 · CC BY 4.0
Unemployment refers to the share of the labor force that is without work but available for and seeking employment. Source: ILO Modelled Estimates database (ILOEST), International Labour Organization (ILO), uri: https://ilostat.ilo.org/data/bulk/, publisher: ILOSTAT, type: external database, date accessed: January 17, 2026
Open at source
Priority #2
International Monetary FundWEOLURpartial
117 countries · 4,938 obs. · → 2031 · © International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook database (April 2026)
IMF WEO — Unemployment rate
Open at source
Priority #3
Eurostatune_rt_aY15-74.PC_ACT.Tok
35 countries · 584 obs. · → 2025 · CC BY 4.0
Eurostat une_rt_a — Unemployment by sex and age - annual data
Open at source
Priority #3
FREDFREDUNRATEok
1 countries · 919 obs. · → 2026 · Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, FRED; third-party series subject to their own terms · limited to 1 countries
Unemployment Rate — Percent — Seasonally Adjusted
Open at source
Priority #4
ILOSTATDF_UNE_2EAP_SEX_AGE_RT.A..SEX_T.AGE_YTHADULT_YGE15ok
187 countries · 6,895 obs. · → 2027 · CC BY 4.0
Unemployment rate by sex and age -- ILO modelled estimates, Nov. 2025
Open at source

Series-level selection: for each country the whole series comes from the highest-priority source that has any non-forecast value for it. If a lower-priority source is more than three years fresher, the freshest source wins instead. Non-chosen values are kept as alternatives, never discarded.

Countries without data

Typical reasons: the source does not survey small territories or micro-states; the statistical office reports with a lag of one to three years; the series is only compiled for member countries of the source organisation (OECD, EU, Eurostat); or a value exists but failed validation and is quarantined rather than shown.

Downloads & API

Every observation for this indicator, all countries and years, with provenance columns.

Download CSV Download JSON

API example

One country, full history. Replace CAN by any ISO3 code or slug.

bash

curl -s "https://www.countryatlas.co/api/v1/series?country=CAN&indicator=unemployment-rate" | jq '.series[0] | {country: .country.name, unit, last: .stats.last, source: .provenance.source_name}'

API documentation →