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Dataset · ILO
Labour Force Participation Rate
36 years, 1990–2025 · 182 countries
The labour force participation rate is the share of everyone aged 15 and over who is either working or looking for work. It measures how much of a country’s adult population is economically active at all, before any question of whether they found a job.
This site holds every year from 1990 to 2025, read from ILO’s own data and stored exactly as published.
Labour Force Participation Rate · the file
- Newest
- Labour Force Participation Rate, 2025
- Held
- 36 years · 6,718 rows
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
0136 years
Every year
Every year comes from ILO’s 2026 release, recalculated on one method. Each opens the full table for that year; each downloads as a CSV.
| Year | Countries | Change | Read | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour Force Participation Rate, 2025Newest | 182 | ±0 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
| Labour Force Participation Rate, 2024 | 182 | −2 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
| Labour Force Participation Rate, 2023 | 184 | −2 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
| Labour Force Participation Rate, 2022 | 186 | −1 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
| Labour Force Participation Rate, 2021 | 187 | ±0 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
| Labour Force Participation Rate, 2020 | 187 | ±0 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
| Labour Force Participation Rate, 2019 | 187 | ±0 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
| Labour Force Participation Rate, 2018 | 187 | ±0 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
| Labour Force Participation Rate, 2017 | 187 | ±0 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
| Labour Force Participation Rate, 2016 | 187 | ±0 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
| Labour Force Participation Rate, 2015 | 187 | ±0 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
| Labour Force Participation Rate, 2014 | 187 | ±0 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
Show all 36 years
Every year in one file, one row per country per year: labour-participation-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv
023 columns
What’s in the file
Every column, what it holds, how it is stored and what its values look like — what a reader needs before opening the file.
| Column | What it holds | Stored as | Range, 2025 | Distinct | Empty | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CountrycountryName | The country’s name, as this file spells it. | Text | — | 182 | 0 | |
ISO Codecountry_codeIdentifier | The ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code, added by this site. Every table here joins on it. | Text · 3 letters | — | 182 | 0 | |
Population aged 15+ in the labour force (%)labour_participationHeadline | The headline figure: Population aged 15+ in the labour force (%). | Number · up to 3 decimals | 23.342 São Tomé and Príncipe87.013 Qatarmiddle 61.657 | 181 | 0 |
Profiled from the newest file. Range: the lowest and highest value, with the country holding it when only one does. Spread: countries in ten equal steps from lowest to highest. A higher value is the better result.
03187 countries across every year
Who is covered
How many countries each year holds, continent by continent, who joined and who left, and which places this site covers that the dataset never has.
| 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Africa | 53 | 53 | 53 | 53 | 53 | 53 | 53 | 53 | 53 | 52 | 51 | 51 |
| Americas | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 |
| Asia | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 49 | 48 | 48 |
| Europe | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 39 | 39 | 39 | 39 |
| Oceania | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 |
| All | 187 | 187 | 187 | 187 | 187 | 187 | 187 | 187 | 186 | 184 | 182 | 182 |
The newest 12 of 36 years.
− Lebanon
− South Sudan
− Palestine
− Sudan
− UkraineNot in this dataset · 37 places this site covers
ILO gives no figure for these in any year held here. It is the publisher’s choice of scope, and each place’s profile shows what is measured.
American Samoa
Andorra
Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda
Aruba
Bermuda
British Virgin Islands
Cayman Islands
Cook Islands
Curaçao
Dominica
Faroe Islands
Gibraltar
Greenland
Grenada
Isle of Man
Kiribati
Kosovo
Liechtenstein
Marshall Islands
Micronesia
Monaco
Montserrat
Nauru
Niue
Northern Mariana Islands
Palau
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Martin
San Marino
Seychelles
Sint MaartenSomaliland
Taiwan
Turks and Caicos Islands
Tuvalu
Vatican City04Provenance
Where it comes from
The path from the publisher to this page, and what was checked and changed on the way.
1 · Publisher
International Labour Organization (ILO)
2 · Their file
Labour Force Participation Rate 2025
3 · Read by this site
September 10, 2026
Imported by a script that parses each figure and writes it down unrounded.4 · Stored as
36 files, one per year
Each downloads as a CSV, or every year together as labour-participation-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv5 · Used on
Its statistic page, and every profile it measures
Precision
The headline is stored to 3 decimals, as published.
Rounded by this site
Never. Tables on screen may show fewer decimals; the files never do.
Changed by this site
Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.
An ILO modelled estimate, pulled through the World Bank’s indicator API (SL.TLF.CACT.ZS). Modelled rather than measured so that one definition applies to every country.
05Reuse
Licence and credit
What the publisher’s licence lets you do, what it asks of you, and a credit line and citation ready to copy.
Licence · checked September 10, 2026
- Share and redistribute it
- Adapt it and build on it
- Use it commercially
- Credit the publisher
- Say what you changed
Share, adapt and use commercially. Credit the publisher and say if you changed anything.
A credit line
Source: International Labour Organization (ILO), Labour Force Participation Rate, via Nations Inquiry.
Cite this dataset
International Labour Organization (ILO). Labour Force Participation Rate, 1990–2025 [data set]. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/labour-participation
The publisher’s own citation: International Labour Organization. ILO Modelled Estimates database (ILOEST). Geneva: ILOSTAT.
Plain-language summary, not legal advice. The licence text is what binds.
06Where it is used
Around the site
Where these numbers appear on this site, and the datasets nearest to it.
Charted
Labour Force Participation Rate by countryWho is highest, the map, the spread, who rose and fell, and the records.
Subjects
Near neighbours
- Employment-to-Population RatioILO · 35 held · 1991–2025
- Unemployment RateILO · 35 held · 1991–2025
- Vulnerable EmploymentILO · 35 held · 1991–2025
07Questions
Labour Force Participation Rate: questions and answers
What is the Labour Force Participation Rate?
The labour force participation rate is the share of everyone aged 15 and over who is either working or looking for work. It measures how much of a country’s adult population is economically active at all, before any question of whether they found a job.
Which years of the Labour Force Participation Rate can I download?
All 36, from 1990 to 2025, each as a CSV file, or every year together in one CSV.
Does ILO rank countries on it?
No. ILO publishes values only. The positions shown on this site are derived by ordering the published values, and are labelled as ours.
Can I use it commercially?
Yes, under CC BY 4.0, with credit to ILO. The licence text is linked on this page.