Euro area
Euro area desk: EMU aggregate first; Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, United Kingdom and United States alongside.
−0.26 pp
As of 2025 | % of population ages 15+
| Year | Value |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 53.39% |
| 2024 | 53.65% |
| 2023 | 53.67% |
| 2022 | 53.29% |
| 2021 | 52.25% |
| 2020 | 51.77% |
| 2019 | 52.75% |
| 2018 | 52.30% |
| 2017 | 51.70% |
| 2016 | 51.03% |
| 2015 | 50.50% |
| 2014 | 50.12% |
| 2013 | 49.99% |
| 2012 | 50.34% |
| 2011 | 50.77% |
| 2010 | 50.87% |
| 2009 | 51.28% |
| 2008 | 52.57% |
| 2007 | 52.35% |
| 2006 | 51.70% |
| 2005 | 50.98% |
| 2004 | 50.58% |
| 2003 | 50.58% |
| 2002 | 50.40% |
The employment-to-population ratio is employed people as a percent of the population ages 15+ (SL.EMP.TOTL.SP.ZS). It does not condition on being in the labour force. Latest: 53.39% in 2025.
It moves with both jobs and demography. From 1991 to 2025 (35 years): mean 50.85%, median 50.77%; low 48.23% (1996), high 53.67% (2023).
Source: World Bank Open Data. Licence: CC BY 4.0 (terms).
This series is the employment-to-population ratio for people aged 15 and over: the share of that population who are employed. The source is World Bank Open Data indicator SL.EMP.TOTL.SP.ZS, an ILO modelled estimate. It is not the unemployment rate. Students, retirees, people looking after a household and others outside the labour force are all in the denominator, so the ratio can fall even when unemployment is unchanged. The ratio also treats each employed person alike, whether they work an hour a week or a full year.
The indicator is modelled from national labour-force surveys and censuses and is revised when those inputs change. Population age structure and retirement ages differ between economies, so levels are not directly equivalent. The chart shows selected economies over the years you choose, and the ranked ledger shows each economy’s latest published year. Read the direction of travel and the broad level; small differences between neighbouring economies sit within the uncertainty of the estimates. Read it with the participation rate for context.
The euro-area desk places the EMU aggregate first. It is the only World Bank aggregate region kept in this build; other regional aggregates are dropped. Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States are shown alongside where the source covers them. The figures are the same World Bank ILO modelled estimates as the all-countries pages, filtered to this set, and are not recomputed for the desk. Taiwan appears only on the headline unemployment page, from the IMF World Economic Outlook.
Use the Country selector to move between desks, the Chart and Table tabs for two views of one dataset, and the range buttons to shorten the window. Each page names its indicator code and licence. The euro-area series is a weighted aggregate of member states, so it can move differently from any single member shown beside it.