The same two numbers, two rankings
For each country there are exactly two figures here: unemployment among 15 to 24 year olds, and unemployment across the whole labour force. Both are World Bank modelled ILO estimates for 2024. Nothing else is added.
There are two obvious ways to say how much worse the young have it. Divide, and you get a multiple: youth unemployment is N times the national rate. Subtract, and you get a gap: youth unemployment is N percentage points above it. Both are honest arithmetic. They do not agree.
Sorted by the multiple, the table opens with Qatar at 4.41 and closes with Japan at 1.57. Sorted by the gap it opens with South Africa at 27.97 points and closes with Qatar at 0.44. Qatar moves from first to last without a single number changing.
| Country | Youth 15 to 24 | All ages | Multiple | Gap, points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qatar | 0.6% | 0.1% | 4.41 | 0.44 |
| Indonesia | 13.1% | 3.3% | 3.96 | 9.77 |
| India | 15.7% | 4.2% | 3.77 | 11.57 |
| Saudi Arabia | 11.5% | 3.5% | 3.27 | 7.98 |
| United Arab Emirates | 6.4% | 2.2% | 2.97 | 4.27 |
| Australia | 9.4% | 3.9% | 2.39 | 5.47 |
| Singapore | 6.3% | 2.7% | 2.31 | 3.59 |
| Brazil | 15.7% | 6.8% | 2.30 | 8.87 |
| Mexico | 5.8% | 2.7% | 2.15 | 3.08 |
| Colombia | 19.4% | 9.6% | 2.02 | 9.79 |
| South Africa | 60.2% | 32.3% | 1.87 | 27.97 |
| Japan | 3.9% | 2.5% | 1.57 | 1.43 |
Why the multiple behaves like this
A ratio is unstable when its denominator is small, and Qatar’s national unemployment rate is 0.13%. At that base a youth rate of 0.57% is already a multiple of 4.41. Had the youth rate come in at 0.9% the multiple would read near 7, and the two rates would still describe a labour market in which almost nobody of any age is recorded as unemployed.
South Africa sits at the other end for the same arithmetic reason and the opposite substantive one. Its national rate is 32.28%, so even a youth rate of 60.25%, three young workers in five, only reaches a multiple of 1.87. That multiple is small because the base is enormous, not because the young are doing well.
This is not a flaw in the data. It is what division does. The failure is in reading a multiple as though it measured severity, when what it measures is a relationship between two figures whose absolute size it has already discarded.
What the young actually face
The gap in percentage points keeps the scale that the multiple throws away. South Africa’s young face a rate 27.97 points above the national one. Qatar’s face 0.44 points above it. South Africa’s gap is sixty-three times Qatar’s.
The two measures disagree least in the middle of the table and most at its ends, which is exactly where a reader is most likely to quote them. India and Indonesia carry high multiples, 3.77 and 3.96, on gaps of 11.6 and 9.8 points, and those are large gaps by any reading. Colombia’s multiple is a modest 2.02 on a gap of 9.79, nearly identical to Indonesia’s gap at half the multiple.
None of which makes the multiple useless. Within one country over time it is informative, because the denominator moves slowly. Across countries at one moment, with national rates that differ by a factor of two hundred and forty-eight, it ranks arithmetic rather than hardship.
- Without work in the reference period.
- Available to start work.
- Actively looking for work.
A 19 year old in full-time education who is not seeking work sits outside the labour force entirely. She is not unemployed and she is not in the denominator. This is why the youth rate can be small in a country where few young people hold jobs, and why that denominator is, in some countries, small enough to make a ratio built on it behave badly.
The youth unemployment rate is not the share of young people without a job. Its denominator is the youth LABOUR FORCE, and a person joins that only by passing all three tests at once.
What the data establishes
- In 2024, ranked by the ratio of youth to total unemployment, Qatar was highest of these twelve at 4.41 and Japan lowest at 1.57.
- Ranked by the difference in percentage points the same twelve invert at the extremes: South Africa highest at 27.97 points, Qatar lowest at 0.44.
- South Africa’s gap is 63 times Qatar’s, while Qatar’s multiple is 2.4 times South Africa’s.
- South Africa reported youth unemployment of 60.2% in 2024, the highest of the twelve, on a national rate of 32.3%.
What it does not
- WHY Qatar’s national unemployment rate is 0.13%. These two indicators record the rate; they do not explain the structure of the labour market that produces it, and neither does this piece.
- That a large multiple is always misleading. Within one country over time, where the denominator changes slowly, it carries real information.
- Anything about job quality, pay, hours or security. Unemployment counts people looking for work and says nothing about the work that those in jobs are doing.
- Anything about 2025 or 2026. The latest year carrying both indicators for all twelve countries is 2024.
- That these twelve countries represent their regions. They are a range chosen to show the inversion, not a sample.
Method
- Two indicators, one year. Both columns are World Bank Open Data series: SL.UEM.1524.ZS, unemployment among ages 15 to 24, and SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS, unemployment total, each as a share of the relevant labour force. Reference year 2024, read on 31 August 2026, dataset last updated 2026-07-13 by the source’s own stamp.
- Multiples and gaps are computed from the unrounded source values and then displayed rounded. Recomputing them from the rounded figures printed in the table gives slightly different results, which is a property of rounding rather than a discrepancy.
- These are MODELLED ILO estimates, harmonised so that countries can be compared. A national statistical agency may publish a different figure for the same country and year on its own definitions. Where the two differ neither is wrong; they answer different questions.
- The twelve countries span the range of the multiple, from Qatar at the top to Japan at the bottom, and include both ends of the gap. Every country carrying data for both indicators in 2024 was eligible.
Primary sources
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