Unemployment Map:
Visualizing the millions of young people looking for work
The International Labor Organization estimates that 71 million young people are currently unemployed – and at least 156 million young people with jobs still live in poverty. As these numbers continue to rise globally, many of their futures are at stake.
This interactive map visualizes the state of global youth unemployment through layers of data, but the numbers should be examined carefully. No single data set can accurately represent the entire issue of youth unemployment – each nation is working with its own unique set of factors that shape the quality of a young person’s life.
For instance, Uganda has a 6.2-percent unemployment rate among male youth, yet almost 20 percent of its overall population lived below the national poverty line in 2012, according to the World Bank. Italy’s male youth unemployment rate was extreme – 43 percent in 2014 – but its gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was almost 50 times greater than Uganda’s that year.
Available data layers include GDP per capita, male and female youth unemployment rates, youth literacy rates and the overall workforce unemployment rate for each country. Youth is defined as those between the ages of 15 and 24, and unemployment is defined as the share of the labor force that is seeking employment and available to work.
The “stories” layer links to our “Ambitions Interrupted” series – a collection of stories from young people around the world who must overcome significant challenges to find meaningful work. These pieces were originally submitted to our YouthVoices platform, where young people everywhere are invited to share their own stories. Each of the 35 stories featured in this project can be read by clicking on the corresponding yellow data point.
Layers can be turned on and off by clicking on the “visible layers” tab.
Once a layer is selected, use your cursor to hover over the map and a window will appear with the corresponding data. The darker the shade of green, the higher the data value is. If a country is black, it means that the data is not available.
Specific countries can also be found using the search bar on the right.
