Skip to content
Nations Inquiry — home

Dataset · ILO

Unemployment Rate

35 years, 1991–2025 · 182 countries

The unemployment rate is the share of a country’s labour force without work but available for it and looking. The ILO models a harmonised figure for 187 countries so they can sit in one table, which is the only way a cross-country comparison of this measure can be honest.

This site holds every year from 1991 to 2025, read from ILO’s own data and stored exactly as published.

Open Unemployment Rate, 2025Download all 35 · CSVSee it charted by country →
Share

Share this page

Unemployment Rate · the file

Newest
Unemployment Rate, 2025
Held
35 years · 6,531 rows
Licence
CC BY 4.0

0135 years

Every year

Every year comes from ILO’s 2026 release, recalculated on one method. Each opens the full table for that year; each downloads as a CSV.

1991bar height: countries covered, up to 1872025
Every year of Unemployment Rate held on this site, newest first, with its download files.
YearCountriesChangeReadDownload
Unemployment Rate, 2025Newest182±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2024182−2September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2023184−2September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2022186−1September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2021187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2020187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2019187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2018187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2017187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2016187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2015187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2014187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Show all 35 years
YearCountriesChangeReadDownload
Unemployment Rate, 2013187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2012187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2011187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2010187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2009187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2008187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2007187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2006187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2005187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2004187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2003187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2002187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2001187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 2000187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 1999187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 1998187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 1997187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 1996187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 1995187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 1994187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 1993187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 1992187±0September 6, 2026CSV
Unemployment Rate, 1991187—September 6, 2026CSV

Every year in one file, one row per country per year: unemployment-rate-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv

023 columns

What’s in the file

Every column, what it holds, how it is stored and what its values look like — what a reader needs before opening the file.

Every column in the newest file of Unemployment Rate: what it holds, how it is stored, and its range.
ColumnWhat it holdsStored asRange, 2025DistinctEmptySpread
CountrycountryNameThe country’s name, as this file spells it.Text—1820
ISO Codecountry_codeIdentifierThe ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code, added by this site. Every table here joins on it.Text · 3 letters—1820
Unemployment (% of labour force)unemployment_rateHeadlineThe headline figure: Unemployment (% of labour force).Number · up to 3 decimals0.130Qatar34.202Eswatinimiddle 5.0841810

Profiled from the newest file. Range: the lowest and highest value, with the country holding it when only one does. Spread: countries in ten equal steps from lowest to highest. A higher value is the worse result.

03187 countries across every year

Who is covered

How many countries each year holds, continent by continent, who joined and who left, and which places this site covers that the dataset never has.

All regions
Countries in each year of Unemployment Rate, by continent.
201420152016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Africa535353535353535353525151
Americas333333333333333333333333
Asia505050505050505050494848
Europe404040404040404039393939
Oceania111111111111111111111111
All187187187187187187187187186184182182

The newest 12 of 35 years.

Who joined and who left

  • 2024
    − Lebanon− South Sudan
  • 2023
    − Palestine− Sudan
  • 2022
    − Ukraine

Not in this dataset · 38 places this site covers

ILO gives no figure for these in any year held here. It is the publisher’s choice of scope, and each place’s profile shows what is measured.

American SamoaAndorraAnguillaAntigua and BarbudaArubaBermudaBritish Virgin IslandsCayman IslandsCook IslandsCuraçaoDominicaFaroe IslandsGibraltarGreenlandGrenadaIsle of ManKiribatiKosovoLiechtensteinMarshall IslandsMicronesiaMonacoMontserratNauruNiueNorthern CyprusNorthern Mariana IslandsPalauSaint Kitts and NevisSaint MartinSan MarinoSeychellesSint MaartenSomalilandTaiwanTurks and Caicos IslandsTuvaluVatican City

04Provenance

Where it comes from

The path from the publisher to this page, and what was checked and changed on the way.

The site’s method

  1. 1 · Publisher

    International Labour Organization (ILO)

    ilostat.ilo.org

  2. 2 · Their file

    Unemployment Rate 2025

    SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS

  3. 3 · Read by this site

    September 6, 2026

    Imported by a script that parses each figure and writes it down unrounded.

  4. 4 · Stored as

    35 files, one per year

    Each downloads as a CSV, or every year together as unemployment-rate-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv

  5. 5 · Used on

    Its statistic page, and every profile it measures

    /statistics/unemployment-rateA key for Work & Labour in the Country Index.

Precision

The headline is stored to 3 decimals, as published.

Rounded by this site

Never. Tables on screen may show fewer decimals; the files never do.

Changed by this site

Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.

Produced by the ILO and pulled through the World Bank’s indicator API (SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS).

05Reuse

Licence and credit

What the publisher’s licence lets you do, what it asks of you, and a credit line and citation ready to copy.

Every publisher’s terms

Licence · checked September 5, 2026

CC BY 4.0

  • Share and redistribute it
  • Adapt it and build on it
  • Use it commercially
  • Credit the publisher
  • Say what you changed

Share, adapt and use commercially. Credit the publisher and say if you changed anything.

A credit line

Source: International Labour Organization (ILO), Unemployment Rate, via Nations Inquiry.

Cite this dataset

International Labour Organization (ILO). Unemployment Rate, 1991–2025 [data set]. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/unemployment-rate

The publisher’s own citation: International Labour Organization. ILO Modelled Estimates database (ILOEST). Geneva: ILOSTAT.

Plain-language summary, not legal advice. The licence text is what binds.

06Questions

Unemployment Rate: questions and answers

What is the Unemployment Rate?

The unemployment rate is the share of a country’s labour force without work but available for it and looking. The ILO models a harmonised figure for 187 countries so they can sit in one table, which is the only way a cross-country comparison of this measure can be honest.

Which years of the Unemployment Rate can I download?

All 35, from 1991 to 2025, each as a CSV file, or every year together in one CSV.

Does ILO rank countries on it?

No. ILO publishes values only. The positions shown on this site are derived by ordering the published values, and are labelled as ours.

Can I use it commercially?

Yes, under CC BY 4.0, with credit to ILO. The licence text is linked on this page.

Feedback

Feedback

How are we doing?

Two answers are required — a rating and your email. The rest is up to you.