Availability of unemployment estimates by source
What you should know about this indicator
- This indicator shows how national and modeled 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.
What you should know about this indicator
- This indicator shows how national and modeled 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.
Sources and processing
This data is based on the following sources
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.
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 ILO Modelled Estimates and Projections database (ILOEST) – ILOSTAT, via World Bank, Labour Force Statistics (LFS) – ILOSTAT, via World Bank. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20251118-195551/grapher/availability-of-unemployment-estimates-by-source-ilo.html [online resource] (archived on November 18, 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:
ILO Modelled Estimates and Projections database (ILOEST) – ILOSTAT, via World Bank (2025); Labour Force Statistics (LFS) – ILOSTAT, via World Bank (2025) – with major processing by Our World in DataFull citation
ILO Modelled Estimates and Projections database (ILOEST) – ILOSTAT, via World Bank (2025); Labour Force Statistics (LFS) – ILOSTAT, via World Bank (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Availability of unemployment estimates by source” [dataset]. ILO Modelled Estimates and Projections database (ILOEST) – ILOSTAT, via World Bank, “World Development Indicators 122”; Labour Force Statistics (LFS) – ILOSTAT, via World Bank, “World Development Indicators 122” [original data]. Retrieved December 5, 2025 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20251118-195551/grapher/availability-of-unemployment-estimates-by-source-ilo.html (archived on November 18, 2025).