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Countries in Asia by unemployment

People without work who are looking for it, as a share of the labour force, as modelled by the International Labour Organization so countries can be compared. 47 countries in Asia, highest first. World Bank, mostly 2025

See it on the map
Map: Unemployment — Asia
Highest
17.3%
Yemen
Median country
4.0%
half above, half below
Lowest
0.1%
Qatar
#Country% of labour forceYearRegion
1Yemen17.3%2025Western Asia
2Jordan16.5%2025Western Asia
3Iraq15.5%2025Western Asia
4Syria13.6%2025Western Asia
5Afghanistan13.4%2025Southern Asia
6Armenia12.9%2025Western Asia
7Georgia12.1%2025Western Asia
8Lebanon11.0%2023Western Asia
9Nepal10.5%2025Southern Asia
10Turkey8.5%2025Western Asia
11Iran8.3%2025Southern Asia
12Tajikistan6.9%2025Central Asia
13Azerbaijan5.5%2025Western Asia
14Pakistan5.4%2025Southern Asia
15Brunei5.3%2025South-Eastern Asia
16Mongolia5.2%2025Eastern Asia
17Cyprus4.9%2025Western Asia
18Kazakhstan4.8%2025Central Asia
=19China4.6%2025Eastern Asia
=19Uzbekistan4.6%2025Central Asia
21Maldives4.5%2025Southern Asia
22Turkmenistan4.3%2025Central Asia
23India4.2%2025Southern Asia
24Sri Lanka4.0%2025Southern Asia
=25Bangladesh3.8%2025Southern Asia
=25Malaysia3.8%2025South-Eastern Asia
=27Israel3.5%2025Western Asia
=27Kyrgyzstan3.5%2025Central Asia
=27North Korea3.5%2025Eastern Asia
30Oman3.3%2025Western Asia
=31Bhutan3.2%2025Southern Asia
=31Indonesia3.2%2025South-Eastern Asia
=33Myanmar3.0%2025South-Eastern Asia
=33Saudi Arabia3.0%2025Western Asia
35Singapore2.8%2025South-Eastern Asia
36South Korea2.7%2025Eastern Asia
37Japan2.5%2025Eastern Asia
=38Kuwait2.2%2025Western Asia
=38Philippines2.2%2025South-Eastern Asia
=38United Arab Emirates2.2%2025Western Asia
41Timor-Leste1.6%2025South-Eastern Asia
42Vietnam1.5%2025South-Eastern Asia
43Laos1.2%2025South-Eastern Asia
44Bahrain1.1%2025Western Asia
45Thailand0.8%2025South-Eastern Asia
46Cambodia0.3%2025South-Eastern Asia
47Qatar0.1%2025Western Asia

No World Bank figure for Taiwan.

Territories and other places

Not ranked: dependencies of the states above, places whose status is disputed. Highest first.

Place% of labour forceStatus
Palestine24.4%Status disputed
Hong Kong2.8%Territory of China
Macao2.3%Territory of China

Questions

Which country in Asia has the highest unemployment?
Yemen has the highest unemployment in Asia: 17.3% of the labour force (2025). Next come Jordan (16.5% of the labour force) and Iraq (15.5% of the labour force).
Which country in Asia has the lowest unemployment?
Qatar, with 0.1% of the labour force (2025).
What is the typical unemployment of a country in Asia?
The median of the 47 countries in Asia is 4.0% of the labour force: half are above it, half below. The median, not the average, because a few countries at the top would drag an average far above almost everyone.
Where do the figures come from?
People without work who are looking for it, as a share of the labour force, as modelled by the International Labour Organization so countries can be compared. Source: World Bank, mostly 2025. Only independent states are ranked; territories are listed separately. A country’s continent follows Natural Earth; the handful of island states it files under the open ocean are placed by their UN subregion.

Source: World Bank (CC BY 4.0). Figures more than 5 years older than the newest are left out rather than shown beside current ones. Countries sharing a value share a rank. All sources.