Youth unemployment remained a major leadership and global-exchange issue in 2025. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated a global youth unemployment rate of 12.4%, representing 67 million unemployed people aged 15–24 worldwide. That rate was only slightly above the 12.3% recorded in 2023, but the global figures conceal large differences between regions, income groups, education levels and national labour markets.
On this page
- Global headline trends
- Regional and income-group differences
- Changes from 2023 to 2025
- Sex and educational attainment
- European Union trend
- Selected European and Canadian snapshots
Global headline trends
The ILO’s Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026: Back to the future places the global youth unemployment rate at 12.3% in 2023, described as the lowest point of the twenty-first century in the ILO series. The rate rose to 12.4% in 2025. Over the same period, the number of unemployed young people increased by 2 million, reaching an estimated 67 million in 2025. These are modelled ILOSTAT estimates from November 2025, and the standard global and regional youth measure is ages 15–24. ILO, Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026
The headline rate was not moving in the same direction everywhere. Between 2023 and 2025, youth unemployment worsened or remained broadly unchanged in 8 of 11 global subregions. Rates increased in 105 countries and territories, while they decreased in 58. This distribution matters for international leadership: a stable global average can coexist with deteriorating prospects for young people in many individual places. ILO, Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026
The 2025 global rate also differed slightly by sex. Young women had a youth unemployment rate of 12.1%, compared with 12.6% for young men. The same ILO report gives those two sex-specific estimates for the global 2025 measure. They should be read alongside the regional figures below, because global averages do not describe the experience of every labour market. ILO, Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026
Regional and income-group differences
In 2025, the highest reported subregional youth unemployment rates in the ILO figures were 26.2% in the Arab States and 22.6% in Northern Africa. The rate was 15.0% in Northern, Southern and Western Europe, 14.6% in Eastern Asia, 14.3% in Southern Asia and 13.1% in Central and Western Asia.
Other 2025 subregional estimates were lower: 11.9% in Latin America and the Caribbean, 11.1% in Eastern Europe, 9.8% in Northern America and 9.5% in South-Eastern Asia and the Pacific. The ILO recorded 8.4% in sub-Saharan Africa. These figures are not directly interchangeable with every national statistic, because the report uses modelled estimates and a common age definition. ILO, Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026
| 2025 group | Youth unemployment rate |
|---|---|
| Arab States | 26.2% |
| Northern Africa | 22.6% |
| Northern, Southern and Western Europe | 15.0% |
| Latin America and the Caribbean | 11.9% |
| Northern America | 9.8% |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 8.4% |
Income groups also showed a broad spread. The ILO estimated youth unemployment at 15.3% in upper-middle-income countries, 11.8% in lower-middle-income countries and 11.1% in high-income countries. The estimate for low-income countries was 8.8%. These values demonstrate why income classification alone does not determine a young person’s likelihood of being unemployed; regional labour-market structure and access to work also shape the result. ILO, Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026
Changes from 2023 to 2025
The two-year changes were mixed rather than uniformly positive or negative. Northern Africa recorded a 1.8-percentage-point increase, the largest increase among the listed subregions. Northern America rose by 1.6 percentage points, while youth unemployment in Northern, Southern and Western Europe increased by 0.8 points. Southern Asia rose by 0.5 points, Eastern Asia by 0.2 points and the Arab States by 0.1 points.
Several places moved in the opposite direction. Eastern Europe recorded a 1.6-percentage-point decrease, and Latin America and the Caribbean decreased by 1.4 points. Central and Western Asia declined by 0.7 points. South-Eastern Asia and the Pacific recorded a 0.0-percentage-point change between 2023 and 2025. The ILO’s summary that 8 of 11 subregions worsened or stayed broadly unchanged places these individual changes in a wider global context. ILO, Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026
The global rate itself moved from 12.3% in 2023 to 12.4% in 2025, while the count of unemployed young people rose by 2 million. That combination is a reminder that a small rate change does not necessarily mean a small change in the number of people affected. The ILO’s quantified count is an estimate for 2025, not a census of every unemployed young person. ILO, Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026
Sex and educational attainment
For the global 2025 estimate, youth unemployment was 12.1% for young women and 12.6% for young men. The ILO education table provides additional 2025 rates by education level, but its age band expands to 15–29 rather than the 15–24 definition used for the global and regional headline estimates. That difference in scope is important when comparing the numbers.
In the Arab States and Northern Africa combined, the education-specific rates were 9.0% for basic education, 8.6% for secondary education and 25.6% for tertiary education. Central and Western Asia recorded 3.3% for basic, 10.0% for secondary and 11.7% for tertiary education. Eastern Asia recorded 1.1%, 3.5% and 4.2%, respectively.
The pattern differed in Northern America: the 2025 rates were 13.5% for basic education, 7.2% for secondary education and 5.4% for tertiary education. Southern Asia recorded 3.0% for basic, 6.4% for secondary and 15.5% for tertiary education. In sub-Saharan Africa, the corresponding rates were 7.5%, 13.6% and 15.8%.
The income-group education figures were 5.9% for basic, 7.1% for secondary and 6.3% for tertiary education in high-income countries. Upper-middle-income countries recorded 4.7%, 7.9% and 10.3%. These estimates do not establish that education alone causes a particular unemployment outcome; they describe differences in the ILO’s 2025 modelled measures. ILO, Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026
European Union trend
Eurostat’s historical EU series for ages 15–24 shows a sharp change across the second half of the 2010s and the early 2020s. The EU youth unemployment rate was 22.0% in 2015, fell to 15.6% in 2019, and reached 17.5% in 2020. It was 14.6% in 2022, 14.8% in 2024 and 15.1% in 2025.
| Year | EU youth unemployment rate, ages 15–24 |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 22.0% |
| 2019 | 15.6% |
| 2020 | 17.5% |
| 2022 | 14.6% |
| 2024 | 14.8% |
| 2025 | 15.1% |
The 2025 EU figure in this series uses ages 15–24 and is therefore not identical to Eurostat’s separate regional comparison for ages 15–29. The historical values come from Key figures on Europe – 2026 edition. Eurostat, Key figures on Europe – 2026 edition
Selected European and Canadian snapshots
Eurostat reported that, in December 2024, 2.927 million people under 25 were unemployed in the EU, corresponding to a youth unemployment rate of 15.0%. In the euro area, 2.359 million people under 25 were unemployed and the rate was 14.8%. These are December labour-force-survey snapshots, not annual averages. Eurostat, “Euro area unemployment at 6.3%”
For the EU’s 2025 regional comparison using ages 15–29, the youth unemployment rate was 11.7%, almost twice the overall rate for ages 15–74. The highest regional rates were 43.1% in Ciudad de Ceuta and 39.6% in Ciudad de Melilla. Other high reported rates were 34.6% in Mayotte, 33.3% in Martinique and 32.1% in Guadeloupe. Eurostat, Regions in Europe – 2026 edition
Canadian monthly measures provide another national perspective. Statistics Canada reported a youth unemployment rate of 13.3% for ages 15–24 in December 2025, following 14.7% in September 2025. A later February 2026 release reported a rate of 14.1%. Because these observations refer to different months, they should not be treated as a single annual estimate or compared with the ILO’s modelled 2025 global rate without noting the measurement difference. Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, December 2025; Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, September 2025; Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, February 2026
The ILO’s 2026–2027 values are projections and are not used here as observed 2026 facts. Across the article, ILO figures are modelled estimates from November 2025, while the Statistics Canada and Eurostat figures are national or EU labour-force-survey measures. Keeping those scopes visible is essential when youth unemployment statistics are used to compare countries, regions or policy challenges.