Home / Unemployment / Uganda
Uganda — Unemployment
Unemployment Rate for Uganda, 1991–2025.
Latest value · 2025
2.75%
Unemployment Rate · % of total labor force · -20.4% since 1991
Unemployment for Uganda was 2.75% in 2025, according to the latest World Bank data. The series covers 35 years, from 1991 to 2025. The highest recorded value was 3.82% in 2020. The lowest was 1.90% in 2005 (about 1.4× the low point). Across that span the compound annual growth rate works out to -0.67% per year.
Uganda ranks 157 of 187 economies on this measure (1 = highest), putting it in the top 84%. The median for Sub-Saharan Africa is 5.45%, so Uganda sits below it. It peaked in 2020 and has fallen 28% since. Over the last decade (2015–2025) the figure moved up 2%.
Key figures
Latest (2025)
2.75%
First (1991)
3.45%
Change
-20.4%
Highest
3.82%
in 2020
Lowest
1.90%
in 2005
Average
3.13%
Annual growth (CAGR)
-0.67%
Years of data
35
Recent years
| Year | % of total labor force |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 2.75% |
| 2024 | 2.74% |
| 2023 | 2.75% |
| 2022 | 2.89% |
| 2021 | 3.42% |
| 2020 | 3.82% |
| 2019 | 3.06% |
| 2018 | 3.25% |
| 2017 | 3.43% |
| 2016 | 3% |
| 2015 | 2.68% |
| 2014 | 2.36% |
Reading this correctly. Share of the labor force without work but available for and seeking employment. National definitions differ, so cross-country comparison needs care. Figures are in % of total labor force. Comparing this series with a different measure of the same concept (for example a nominal figure against a purchasing-power-parity figure) will give misleading results.
Related data
Source. World Bank Open Data, indicator
SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS — Unemployment Rate. Data licensed under CC BY 4.0. Values are reproduced as published; this page computes the summary statistics (change, CAGR, extremes) from the underlying annual series. View the original dataset on data.worldbank.org.