Insights

World Unemployment Rate Map

A 2024 country snapshot of unemployment rates for adults aged 15+, using one ILOSTAT reference year for consistent comparison.

Current frame

2024 labor snapshot

This page uses one ILOSTAT reference year for total unemployment at age 15+.

Coverage: 105 country rows for the 2024 reference year.

World Unemployment Rate Map A 2024 country snapshot of unemployment rates for adults aged 15+, using one ILOSTAT reference year for consistent comparison. Unemployment rate (% of labor force) 0.1% - 3.2% 3.2% - 4.3% 4.3% - 5.7% 5.7% - 8.4% 8.4% - 32.3% No data

Country rows

105

2024 total-population row for age 15+.

Reference year

2024

Single ILOSTAT comparison year used across the table and map.

10%+ countries

17

Rows at or above 10% unemployment.

Below 3%

19

Rows below 3% unemployment.

What stands out

Double-digit unemployment is still concentrated

17 countries in this snapshot remain at or above 10%, led by Djibouti and South Africa.

A low-unemployment floor is visible too

19 countries sit below 3%, including Qatar, Thailand, Moldova, and Vanuatu.

The comparison year is fixed

This table uses 105 rows from 2024, avoiding mixed-year comparisons across countries.

Coverage is thinner than the GDP or internet tables

Not every country has a 2024 unemployment observation in this exact ILOSTAT slice, so the published table is intentionally narrower.

A few grounding facts behind the map

  • 17 countries in this release remain at or above 10% unemployment.
  • 19 countries fall below 3% unemployment in the 2024 table.
  • South Africa sits at the top of the table, while Qatar sits at the bottom.

Method in one minute

MapHue starts from the ILOSTAT country export, keeps only total-population rows for age 15+, and uses 2024 because the current 2025 slice is not broadly populated.

  • The underlying indicator is the unemployment rate by sex and age (%), filtered here to Total and Age (Aggregate bands): 15+.
  • This release keeps a single 2024 value per country so the map does not compare countries across different reporting years.
  • Rows without a matching world-map geography code remain downloadable in the CSV even if they are not visible on the static choropleth.

Top and bottom rows

Highest values

  • South Africa: 32.3%
  • Palestine, State of: 31.4%
  • Botswana: 24.4%
  • Lesotho: 18.7%
  • Gabon: 17.4%

Lowest values

  • Argentina: 1.7%
  • Viet Nam: 1.5%
  • Republic of Moldova: 1.4%
  • Thailand: 0.8%
  • Qatar: 0.1%

Source references

ILOSTAT - Unemployment rate by sex and age (%)

Official ILOSTAT snapshot used for country unemployment rates, filtered to total population aged 15+.

Visit source

FAQ

Why does this dataset use 2024 instead of 2025?

The current 2025 ILOSTAT slice is not broadly populated for this filtered indicator, so this release uses 2024 for a consistent country comparison.

What population slice does this page use?

It uses total unemployment rates for the population aged 15+.

How many country rows are included?

This release includes 105 country rows in the normalized latest-available table.