Unemployment Rate by Country, 2000-2024

About This Dataset

Unemployment as a share of the labour force in twelve major economies at eight points from 2000 to 2024, using World Bank modelled ILO estimates. The 2019, 2020 and 2022 columns are included so the pandemic spike and the recovery are both visible.

✨ AI Insight

South Africa is the highest in every year shown, rising from 22.8 percent in 2000 to 32.3 percent in 2024 and peaking at 33.3 percent in 2022 - a rate more than four times the group average. Spain has moved the most in the other direction, from a 22.1 percent peak in 2015 to 11.4 percent in 2024. The 2020 column captures the pandemic clearly in the United States, where the rate jumped from 3.7 to 8.1 percent before returning to 4.0 by 2024. India is the oddity: the modelled estimate barely moved between 2000 and 2015, sitting between 7.55 and 7.63 percent for fifteen years, before falling to 4.2 percent in 2024.

Source: World Bank Open Data

Key Findings

Auto-computed highlights from this dataset

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South Africa leads with 32 in 2024.

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South Africa grew fastest: +41.7% from 2000 to 2024 (22.80 → 32.30).

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Germany declined most: -57% from 2000 to 2024 (7.90 → 3.40).

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Average value in 2024: 8 · median: 5.

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2010 recorded the highest combined total across all categories.

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Gap in 2024: South Africa is 12.9× larger than Japan.