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: 32.39% 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 1991 to 2025 (35 years): mean 25.24%, median 23.46%; low 22.26% (2007), high 34.01% (2021).
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 South Africa desk places South Africa first and shows the United States, the United Kingdom, the euro area, China, Australia, India and New Zealand alongside, as far as each indicator covers them. It republishes the same World Bank ILO modelled estimates as the all-countries pages, filtered to this set, and does not recompute them for the desk. Taiwan appears only on the headline unemployment page, from the IMF World Economic Outlook, because the World Bank does not publish it. This desk is reachable by its address but is not listed in the Country selector, and the page is set to noindex.
Switch between Chart and Table for the same values, and use the range buttons to change the period. Each page prints its indicator, source and licence. Survey coverage and the treatment of informal work vary, so compare the direction of travel and broad level rather than small gaps.