Data

Availability of unemployment estimates by source

What you should know about this indicator

  • This indicator shows how and unemployment rate estimates from the International Labour Organization (ILO) compare for each country. It indicates whether the ILO used the same value for national and modeled estimates, a different value, or if the data is only available in one of these datasets. This is obtained by calculating the absolute difference between the two estimates for each country and year. A difference of less than 0.1 percentage points is considered to be the same value.
  • A few countries — such as Ukraine, Palestine, and Sudan in recent years — have no published modeled estimates. This usually happens when comparable national data cannot be obtained, or when the ILO considers modeled estimates unreliable, for example, during conflict or major disruption.
Availability of unemployment estimates by source
Availability and differences between ILO and of unemployment rate.
Source
International Labour Organization, ILO Modelled Estimates (ILOEST) / ILOSTAT, via World Bank (2025); International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT, via World Bank (2025)with major processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
September 8, 2025
Next expected update
September 2026
Date range
1960–2023

What you should know about this indicator

  • This indicator shows how and unemployment rate estimates from the International Labour Organization (ILO) compare for each country. It indicates whether the ILO used the same value for national and modeled estimates, a different value, or if the data is only available in one of these datasets. This is obtained by calculating the absolute difference between the two estimates for each country and year. A difference of less than 0.1 percentage points is considered to be the same value.
  • A few countries — such as Ukraine, Palestine, and Sudan in recent years — have no published modeled estimates. This usually happens when comparable national data cannot be obtained, or when the ILO considers modeled estimates unreliable, for example, during conflict or major disruption.
Availability of unemployment estimates by source
Availability and differences between ILO and of unemployment rate.
Source
International Labour Organization, ILO Modelled Estimates (ILOEST) / ILOSTAT, via World Bank (2025); International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT, via World Bank (2025)with major processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
September 8, 2025
Next expected update
September 2026
Date range
1960–2023

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

International Labour Organization, ILO Modelled Estimates (ILOEST) / ILOSTAT, via World Bank – World Development Indicators

The World Development Indicators (WDI) is the primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources. It presents the most current and accurate global development data available, and includes national, regional and global estimates.

Retrieved on
September 8, 2025
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
ILO Modelled Estimates database (ILOEST), International Labour Organization (ILO), uri: https://ilostat.ilo.org/data/bulk/, publisher: ILOSTAT, type: external database, date accessed: January 07, 2025. Indicator SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS). World Development Indicators - World Bank (2025). Accessed on 2025-09-08.

The World Development Indicators (WDI) is the primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources. It presents the most current and accurate global development data available, and includes national, regional and global estimates.

Retrieved on
September 8, 2025
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
ILO Modelled Estimates database (ILOEST), International Labour Organization (ILO), uri: https://ilostat.ilo.org/data/bulk/, publisher: ILOSTAT, type: external database, date accessed: January 07, 2025. Indicator SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS). World Development Indicators - World Bank (2025). Accessed on 2025-09-08.

International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT, via World Bank – World Development Indicators

The World Development Indicators (WDI) is the primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources. It presents the most current and accurate global development data available, and includes national, regional and global estimates.

Retrieved on
September 8, 2025
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Labour Force Statistics database (LFS), International Labour Organization (ILO), uri: https://ilostat.ilo.org/data/bulk/, publisher: ILOSTAT, type: external database, date accessed: September 25, 2025. Indicator SL.UEM.TOTL.NE.ZS (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.UEM.TOTL.NE.ZS). World Development Indicators - World Bank (2025). Accessed on 2025-09-08.

The World Development Indicators (WDI) is the primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources. It presents the most current and accurate global development data available, and includes national, regional and global estimates.

Retrieved on
September 8, 2025
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Labour Force Statistics database (LFS), International Labour Organization (ILO), uri: https://ilostat.ilo.org/data/bulk/, publisher: ILOSTAT, type: external database, date accessed: September 25, 2025. Indicator SL.UEM.TOTL.NE.ZS (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.UEM.TOTL.NE.ZS). World Development Indicators - World Bank (2025). Accessed on 2025-09-08.

How we process data at Our World in Data

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline
Notes on our processing step for this indicator

We derive this indicator by calculating the absolute difference between the ILO modeled estimates and the national estimates for unemployment rate in each country and year. If the absolute difference is less than 0.1 percentage points, we consider the estimates to be the same value. If the absolute difference is 0.1 percentage points or more, we classify it as a different value. If data is only available in one of the datasets, we indicate that as well.

Reuse this work

  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
  • All data, visualizations, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Availability of unemployment estimates by source”. Our World in Data (2025). Data adapted from International Labour Organization, ILO Modelled Estimates (ILOEST) / ILOSTAT, via World Bank, International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT, via World Bank. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20251220-152415/grapher/availability-of-unemployment-estimates-by-source-ilo.html [online resource] (archived on December 20, 2025).

How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

International Labour Organization, ILO Modelled Estimates (ILOEST) / ILOSTAT, via World Bank (2025); International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT, via World Bank (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

International Labour Organization, ILO Modelled Estimates (ILOEST) / ILOSTAT, via World Bank (2025); International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT, via World Bank (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Availability of unemployment estimates by source” [dataset]. International Labour Organization, ILO Modelled Estimates (ILOEST) / ILOSTAT, via World Bank, “World Development Indicators 122”; International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT, via World Bank, “World Development Indicators 122” [original data]. Retrieved December 25, 2025 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20251220-152415/grapher/availability-of-unemployment-estimates-by-source-ilo.html (archived on December 20, 2025).