Unemployment Rate by Country (2026)

The three highest countries are Eswatini (34.2), South Africa (32.4), Djibouti (26); the three lowest are Qatar (0.1), Cambodia (0.3), Niger (0.4).

Across all 186 countries the median is 5.1 % of labor force and the simple (unweighted) average is 6.9; the spread from 0.1 to 34.2 shows how differently countries fare on this measure.

Over roughly the last decade the biggest increases were in Eswatini (+10.8 pts), South Africa (+7.2 pts), Botswana (+5.6 pts), while the largest decreases were in Bosnia and Herzegovina (-16.7 pts), Greece (-16.4 pts), North Macedonia (-14.1 pts).

By continent, the leaders are Palestine in Asia (24.4), Montenegro in Europe (13.6), Eswatini in Africa (34.2), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in North America (18), Guyana in South America (12), French Polynesia in Oceania (11.7).

Unemployment refers to the share of the labor force that is without work but available for and seeking employment, using the International Labour Organization's modelled estimates so that countries are comparable. Informal work, common in low-income countries, can make official unemployment look deceptively low.

Source: World Bank Open Data (indicator SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS). Countries without a published value are not ranked. Each country's own page shows the full historical series and its rank on this and every other indicator.