The unemployment rate is the share of the labour force without work but available for and seeking work. World Bank indicator SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS, ILO modelled estimates — a common definition across economies, not a national labour-force survey. Latest: 3.40% in 2025.
A rise is more people unemployed relative to the labour force, not necessarily more people out of work if participation also moves. From 1980 to 2025 (46 years): mean 3.22%, median 3.45%; low 1.20% (1980), high 5.90% (2009).
This series is the unemployment rate: people without work who are available for and actively seeking work, as a share of the labour force. The labour force is the employed plus the unemployed; students, retirees and unpaid carers are outside it. The source is World Bank Open Data indicator SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS, an ILO modelled estimate, so the definition is held constant across economies rather than taken from each national survey. Taiwan’s headline rate is republished from the IMF World Economic Outlook.
The chart plots annual observations for the economies you select; the range buttons shorten the window and the legend or table adds and removes lines. The ranked ledger shows each economy’s latest published year, and those years differ, so read the year label before comparing. Modelled estimates are revised when national data change, so a rebuild can print a different past value. Read this rate with participation and the employment ratio, because unemployment can fall when people leave the labour force as well as when they find work.
About this desk
The World Bank does not publish Taiwan on any of these labour series, and the IMF World Economic Outlook carries only a headline unemployment rate for it. This desk therefore shows a Taiwanese value on the unemployment page alone; the youth, female, male, participation and employment pages present related economies only. That set is Korea, the United States, Japan, China, the euro area, the United Kingdom, Australia and Singapore, as far as each source provides them. The build does not present a Taiwanese figure the sources have not published.
The values are the same World Bank ILO modelled estimates used on the all-countries pages, filtered to this comparison set. Use the Country selector to move to a desk with its own series, the Chart and Table tabs for two views, and the range buttons to shorten the window. Indicator codes and licences are named on each page.