Top 100 Countries by Youth Unemployment (15–24, %), 2025

Youth unemployment is one of the clearest stress tests for an economy’s ability to turn education into earnings. The indicator behind this ranking measures the share of the youth labour force (ages 15–24) that is without work, available for work, and actively seeking employment. It is a percentage of the youth labour force—not of all young people—so interpretation depends on how many 15–24-year-olds are actually in the labour market rather than studying full-time.

A 2025 snapshot of the youth jobless rate tells a story about the school-to-work transition, entry-level labour demand, and how well the skills supplied by education systems match what employers need. It is also a front-edge metric: when growth slows, entry-level hiring tends to freeze earlier than hiring for experienced roles. In many countries, youth unemployment moves more sharply than total unemployment because young workers are concentrated in temporary contracts, seasonal work, and sectors that react quickly to demand.

This Top 100 table is based on the World Bank WDI series “Unemployment, youth total (% of total labor force ages 15–24) (modeled ILO estimate)”. The series is designed for cross-country comparison and draws on ILOSTAT, using modelling to fill gaps where national data are missing or irregular. For each economy, the reference year indicates the latest annual observation used in this 2025 snapshot (often 2023 or 2024 rather than calendar-year 2025). That timing nuance matters when you compare countries that publish labour surveys at different speeds.

A second trap is to treat high unemployment as a synonym for “no work”. In economies with large informal employment, many young people cycle between short spells of informal work and active job search. Measured unemployment can remain high even though many youths are not idle all the time. Conversely, a low unemployment rate can coexist with a high NEET share if many young people have stopped searching and are outside the labour force.

Youth unemployment is not simply adult unemployment, but higher. The youth labour market has frictions that keep rates elevated even when the broader economy looks stable. The first is the first-job barrier: employers often ask for experience for entry-level roles, creating a circular problem for new entrants. The second is skills mismatch: education systems may lag behind employer demand, especially in technical trades, digital roles, and job-ready soft skills. The third is geographic mismatch: jobs cluster in major cities, while young people face housing costs, transport barriers, and limited information about openings.

Sector structure matters too. Economies that rely heavily on capital-intensive extractives or a narrow set of public-sector jobs can grow without creating enough entry-level positions. In these settings, young job seekers may queue for government jobs because the private sector offers lower pay, weaker security, or informal contracts. The result is a waiting-room labour market where unemployment stays high for the young even when older workers remain employed.

Youth unemployment counts only young people in the labour force who are actively looking for work. NEET counts young people who are neither in employment nor in education or training, including both unemployed and inactive youths. That makes NEET a better lens on long-term exclusion, while unemployment is more sensitive to short-run labour-market tightness. If you want context, see StatRanker’s NEET pages: Top 10 by NEET among youth (15–24) and the Macroeconomics category.