Groundfact
Scope Nepal
Nepal World

Changing scope re-grounds every widget and the analysis rail.

/nepal/indicators/unemployment_rate
Economy · Nepal

Unemployment, total (% of total labor force)

Share of the labour force that is without work but available for and seeking employment (modelled ILO estimate).

Unit
%
Latest
10.5 (2025)
Coverage
1991–2024
Sources
2 in this build
Data table
Year Nepal (%)
1991 10.46
1992 10.47
1993 10.49
1994 10.46
1995 10.47
1996 10.45
1997 10.51
1998 10.53
1999 10.55
2000 10.53
2001 10.5
2002 10.59
2003 10.64
2004 10.65
2005 10.59
2006 10.61
2007 10.64
2008 10.6
2009 10.58
2010 10.56
2011 10.63
2012 10.63
2013 10.67
2014 10.62
2015 10.64
2016 10.71
2017 10.66
2018 10.59
2019 10.48
2020 13.04
2021 12.24
2022 10.66
2023 10.44
2024 10.5
2025 10.46
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Per-source values, 2025

Source Dataset Value Year Snapshot
World Bank WDI 10.46 2025 2026-08-09
ILOSTAT UNE_DEAP_SEX_AGE_RT_A 10.66 2017 2026-08-08

Sources currently disagree by about 0.00 percentage points for this indicator and geography. Both figures are shown below rather than one being picked as correct.

Two sources, two numbers

10.7–10.7 % two sources differ by 0.00 percentage points

Why do these differ, and what each source reported

ILOSTAT's UNE_DEAP_SEX_AGE_RT is the direct labour force survey estimate (total, ages 15+), reported only in the years Nepal ran an NLFS round (1996, 1999, 2003, 2008, 2015, 2017); the World Bank's SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS is a smoothed modelled annual series. The two converge almost exactly in 2017 (verified live: 10.66% both) but ILOSTAT sits far below the Bank's figure before it (1.4-4.5%). That is a real break in Nepal's own survey methodology, not a data error: Nepal's LFS moved from an extended activity definition (which classified most subsistence/unpaid economic activity as employment, pushing measured unemployment very low) to the standard ICLS-19 definition around the 2017/18 NLFS III round.

World Bank
10.7
World Bank

World Bank Open Data (CC BY 4.0)

Dataset
WDI
Snapshot
2026-08-09 · Fresh
Licence
CC-BY-4.0
Cadence
quarterly
As of build 4a6c70c · open data.worldbank.org ↗
Open at World Bank ↗
World Bank
10.7
World Bank

World Bank Open Data (CC BY 4.0)

Dataset
WDI
Snapshot
2026-08-09 · Fresh
Licence
CC-BY-4.0
Cadence
quarterly
As of build 4a6c70c · open data.worldbank.org ↗
Open at World Bank ↗

Caveats

Modelled ILO estimate; Nepal's official unemployment figures undercount underemployment and disguised unemployment in subsistence agriculture, a known limitation of the headline unemployment rate for agrarian economies.