placestats

Female labor participation vs. Youth not in work or study

Holds up after adjusting for income

Across 162 countries, Female labor participation and Youth not in work or study rise and fall together at r = -0.47 (on a scale from −1 to +1, where 0 means no link). It holds up almost unchanged when only countries with similar income (GDP per person) are compared (r = -0.53, q = 0.023, allowing for the many pairs tested).

Comparing countries across the middle half of female labor participation, 44.7% to 60.6% of women 15+, youth not in work or study is better by 5.5% of 15 to 24 year olds at the top of that range than the bottom. Comparing only countries with similar national income, the gap is 5.14% of 15 to 24 year olds.

Link before adjusting (r)-0.472p = 2.4e-10 · 162 countries
After adjusting for national income-0.528p = 6.1e-13 · likely range [-0.63, -0.41]
p, allowing for regions0.001standard error 0.092 · 7 regions
Check for luck (q)0.023across 12,497 pairs

How to read these.r runs from −1 (one goes up as the other goes down) to +1 (they rise together), and 0 means no link. Adjusting for national income means comparing countries with the same GDP per person, so differences in wealth can’t explain the link. Income is used in percentage terms, since an extra $1,000 means more to a poor country than to a rich one. p is how likely a link this strong would be if there were really none. Below 0.05 means it is unlikely to be chance. Very small values are written in short form: 1.1e-32 means a decimal point followed by 31 zeros and then 11, so very close to zero. The likely range is where the true figure probably lies, and a range that crosses zero means the link could easily be chance. Countries in the same region tend to resemble each other, so the third figure allows for that, which gives a fairer p. The standard error is the typical size of the error in r. Finally, testing this many pairs means some will look strong by luck alone. A q below 0.05 means this link is unlikely to be one of those.

Female labor participation · % of women 15+link with income +0.07 · independent
Youth not in work or study · % of 15 to 24 year oldslink with income -0.63 · high

“Link with income” is how closely each measure tracks GDP per person across countries, from −1 to +1.

Every country as a dot

Female labor participation · % of women 15+ →Youth not in work or study · % of 15 to 24 year olds →5.09%82.9%3.14%65.7%Afghanistan: 5.09% of women 15+, 43.8% of 15 to 24 year oldsAngola: 72.2% of women 15+, 24.9% of 15 to 24 year oldsAlbania: 58.6% of women 15+, 21% of 15 to 24 year oldsUnited Arab Emirates: 53% of women 15+, 8.92% of 15 to 24 year oldsArgentina: 52.5% of women 15+, 15.2% of 15 to 24 year oldsArmenia: 51.1% of women 15+, 20.2% of 15 to 24 year oldsAustralia: 62.5% of women 15+, 8.53% of 15 to 24 year oldsAustria: 55.1% of women 15+, 13.4% of 15 to 24 year oldsAzerbaijan: 60.8% of women 15+, 9.64% of 15 to 24 year oldsBurundi: 79.5% of women 15+, 11.2% of 15 to 24 year oldsBelgium: 49.8% of women 15+, 8.15% of 15 to 24 year oldsBenin: 75.2% of women 15+, 14.2% of 15 to 24 year oldsBurkina Faso: 64.1% of women 15+, 24.5% of 15 to 24 year oldsBangladesh: 38.6% of women 15+, 15.4% of 15 to 24 year oldsBulgaria: 50.4% of women 15+, 10.9% of 15 to 24 year oldsBosnia and Herzegovina: 39.2% of women 15+, 14.3% of 15 to 24 year oldsBelarus: 56.8% of women 15+, 65.7% of 15 to 24 year oldsBelize: 46.5% of women 15+, 24.9% of 15 to 24 year oldsBolivia: 72.9% of women 15+, 8.02% of 15 to 24 year oldsBrazil: 53.4% of women 15+, 18.7% of 15 to 24 year oldsBarbados: 61% of women 15+, 29% of 15 to 24 year oldsBrunei Darussalam: 54.4% of women 15+, 19% of 15 to 24 year oldsBhutan: 56.7% of women 15+, 15.3% of 15 to 24 year oldsBotswana: 63.7% of women 15+, 38% of 15 to 24 year oldsCanada: 60.2% of women 15+, 13.3% of 15 to 24 year oldsSwitzerland: 62.2% of women 15+, 6.99% of 15 to 24 year oldsChile: 52.9% of women 15+, 13.4% of 15 to 24 year oldsCote d'Ivoire: 59.5% of women 15+, 18.8% of 15 to 24 year oldsCameroon: 56.6% of women 15+, 23.2% of 15 to 24 year oldsCongo, Dem. Rep.: 61.8% of women 15+, 31.4% of 15 to 24 year oldsColombia: 51.6% of women 15+, 22% of 15 to 24 year oldsComoros: 47.6% of women 15+, 21.2% of 15 to 24 year oldsCabo Verde: 50.5% of women 15+, 28% of 15 to 24 year oldsCosta Rica: 46% of women 15+, 19.4% of 15 to 24 year oldsCyprus: 61.2% of women 15+, 13.2% of 15 to 24 year oldsCzechia: 53.5% of women 15+, 4.62% of 15 to 24 year oldsGermany: 55.3% of women 15+, 7.58% of 15 to 24 year oldsDjibouti: 19.4% of women 15+, 44% of 15 to 24 year oldsDenmark: 60.8% of women 15+, 6.9% of 15 to 24 year oldsDominican Republic: 53.7% of women 15+, 24.7% of 15 to 24 year oldsAlgeria: 14.1% of women 15+, 20.9% of 15 to 24 year oldsEcuador: 52.4% of women 15+, 17.7% of 15 to 24 year oldsEgypt, Arab Rep.: 18.5% of women 15+, 23.8% of 15 to 24 year oldsSpain: 52.8% of women 15+, 10.5% of 15 to 24 year oldsEstonia: 61% of women 15+, 10.2% of 15 to 24 year oldsEthiopia: 58.5% of women 15+, 17.5% of 15 to 24 year oldsFinland: 56.5% of women 15+, 8.28% of 15 to 24 year oldsFiji: 38.5% of women 15+, 20.8% of 15 to 24 year oldsFrance: 51.5% of women 15+, 12.6% of 15 to 24 year oldsGabon: 41.6% of women 15+, 20.2% of 15 to 24 year oldsUnited Kingdom: 57.3% of women 15+, 14.4% of 15 to 24 year oldsGeorgia: 56.7% of women 15+, 14.7% of 15 to 24 year oldsGhana: 55.3% of women 15+, 23.9% of 15 to 24 year oldsGuinea: 42.6% of women 15+, 34.3% of 15 to 24 year oldsGambia, The: 45.5% of women 15+, 36.5% of 15 to 24 year oldsGuinea-Bissau: 60.3% of women 15+, 13.2% of 15 to 24 year oldsGreece: 44.7% of women 15+, 10.4% of 15 to 24 year oldsGuatemala: 38.3% of women 15+, 24% of 15 to 24 year oldsGuyana: 47.4% of women 15+, 44.8% of 15 to 24 year oldsHong Kong SAR, China: 51.8% of women 15+, 5.95% of 15 to 24 year oldsHonduras: 39.6% of women 15+, 29% of 15 to 24 year oldsCroatia: 47.4% of women 15+, 8.08% of 15 to 24 year oldsHaiti: 58.3% of women 15+, 21.1% of 15 to 24 year oldsHungary: 54.3% of women 15+, 9.98% of 15 to 24 year oldsIndonesia: 53.7% of women 15+, 21.4% of 15 to 24 year oldsIndia: 32.4% of women 15+, 25.6% of 15 to 24 year oldsIreland: 59.8% of women 15+, 5.67% of 15 to 24 year oldsIran, Islamic Rep.: 14% of women 15+, 24.3% of 15 to 24 year oldsIraq: 10.9% of women 15+, 36.9% of 15 to 24 year oldsIceland: 70% of women 15+, 3.98% of 15 to 24 year oldsIsrael: 62.3% of women 15+, 15.3% of 15 to 24 year oldsItaly: 40.8% of women 15+, 12% of 15 to 24 year oldsJamaica: 63% of women 15+, 19.7% of 15 to 24 year oldsJordan: 16% of women 15+, 29.4% of 15 to 24 year oldsJapan: 55.9% of women 15+, 3.14% of 15 to 24 year oldsKazakhstan: 62.6% of women 15+, 9.49% of 15 to 24 year oldsKenya: 63% of women 15+, 18.5% of 15 to 24 year oldsKyrgyz Republic: 44.1% of women 15+, 19.3% of 15 to 24 year oldsCambodia: 77.4% of women 15+, 6.32% of 15 to 24 year oldsLao PDR: 61.6% of women 15+, 22.5% of 15 to 24 year oldsLebanon: 22.2% of women 15+, 23.5% of 15 to 24 year oldsLiberia: 72% of women 15+, 39.9% of 15 to 24 year oldsSt. Lucia: 62% of women 15+, 25.5% of 15 to 24 year oldsSri Lanka: 31% of women 15+, 17.2% of 15 to 24 year oldsLesotho: 48.1% of women 15+, 38% of 15 to 24 year oldsLithuania: 57.7% of women 15+, 14.9% of 15 to 24 year oldsLuxembourg: 57.5% of women 15+, 10.2% of 15 to 24 year oldsLatvia: 55.2% of women 15+, 9.89% of 15 to 24 year oldsMacao SAR, China: 63.1% of women 15+, 4.96% of 15 to 24 year oldsMorocco: 19.7% of women 15+, 35.3% of 15 to 24 year oldsMoldova: 72.3% of women 15+, 9.05% of 15 to 24 year oldsMadagascar: 82.9% of women 15+, 24.3% of 15 to 24 year oldsMaldives: 40.7% of women 15+, 26.3% of 15 to 24 year oldsMexico: 47.5% of women 15+, 16.2% of 15 to 24 year oldsNorth Macedonia: 42.7% of women 15+, 19.5% of 15 to 24 year oldsMali: 52.8% of women 15+, 30.1% of 15 to 24 year oldsMalta: 55.8% of women 15+, 7.84% of 15 to 24 year oldsMyanmar: 40.9% of women 15+, 15% of 15 to 24 year oldsMontenegro: 51.2% of women 15+, 14.2% of 15 to 24 year oldsMongolia: 51.5% of women 15+, 9.9% of 15 to 24 year oldsMozambique: 77.1% of women 15+, 19.2% of 15 to 24 year oldsMauritania: 26.2% of women 15+, 44.1% of 15 to 24 year oldsMauritius: 47.5% of women 15+, 13.9% of 15 to 24 year oldsMalawi: 58.2% of women 15+, 39.4% of 15 to 24 year oldsMalaysia: 51.6% of women 15+, 10.2% of 15 to 24 year oldsNamibia: 54.9% of women 15+, 31.9% of 15 to 24 year oldsNiger: 72.8% of women 15+, 15.7% of 15 to 24 year oldsNigeria: 80.7% of women 15+, 11.9% of 15 to 24 year oldsNicaragua: 51.3% of women 15+, 24.5% of 15 to 24 year oldsNetherlands: 62.7% of women 15+, 4.14% of 15 to 24 year oldsNorway: 62.1% of women 15+, 5.82% of 15 to 24 year oldsNepal: 27.5% of women 15+, 34.8% of 15 to 24 year oldsNew Zealand: 66.1% of women 15+, 12.8% of 15 to 24 year oldsOman: 30% of women 15+, 25.5% of 15 to 24 year oldsPakistan: 24% of women 15+, 28.5% of 15 to 24 year oldsPanama: 54.9% of women 15+, 15.1% of 15 to 24 year oldsPeru: 65% of women 15+, 22.8% of 15 to 24 year oldsPhilippines: 50.5% of women 15+, 12.4% of 15 to 24 year oldsPapua New Guinea: 50.8% of women 15+, 27.7% of 15 to 24 year oldsPoland: 51.6% of women 15+, 10.1% of 15 to 24 year oldsPuerto Rico (US): 36.9% of women 15+, 19.5% of 15 to 24 year oldsPortugal: 54.6% of women 15+, 7.02% of 15 to 24 year oldsParaguay: 59% of women 15+, 18.6% of 15 to 24 year oldsWest Bank and Gaza: 18.9% of women 15+, 25.8% of 15 to 24 year oldsRomania: 41.8% of women 15+, 17% of 15 to 24 year oldsRussian Federation: 54.5% of women 15+, 6.68% of 15 to 24 year oldsRwanda: 57.3% of women 15+, 15.3% of 15 to 24 year oldsSaudi Arabia: 33.6% of women 15+, 16.4% of 15 to 24 year oldsSudan: 14.5% of women 15+, 46.5% of 15 to 24 year oldsSenegal: 38.2% of women 15+, 35.2% of 15 to 24 year oldsSingapore: 63.6% of women 15+, 6.46% of 15 to 24 year oldsSolomon Islands: 82.3% of women 15+, 7.04% of 15 to 24 year oldsSierra Leone: 51.6% of women 15+, 25.9% of 15 to 24 year oldsEl Salvador: 49.1% of women 15+, 20.5% of 15 to 24 year oldsSomalia, Fed. Rep.: 20.7% of women 15+, 51% of 15 to 24 year oldsSerbia: 52.6% of women 15+, 12.7% of 15 to 24 year oldsSao Tome and Principe: 22.7% of women 15+, 43.8% of 15 to 24 year oldsSuriname: 44.9% of women 15+, 18.2% of 15 to 24 year oldsSlovak Republic: 55.1% of women 15+, 8.75% of 15 to 24 year oldsSlovenia: 52.3% of women 15+, 7.13% of 15 to 24 year oldsSweden: 61.5% of women 15+, 5.58% of 15 to 24 year oldsEswatini: 48.5% of women 15+, 36.5% of 15 to 24 year oldsChad: 47.3% of women 15+, 42.3% of 15 to 24 year oldsTogo: 56.6% of women 15+, 13% of 15 to 24 year oldsThailand: 59% of women 15+, 12.4% of 15 to 24 year oldsTajikistan: 21.9% of women 15+, 41.3% of 15 to 24 year oldsTimor-Leste: 61.7% of women 15+, 29.1% of 15 to 24 year oldsTonga: 42.3% of women 15+, 25.6% of 15 to 24 year oldsTrinidad and Tobago: 47.8% of women 15+, 15.8% of 15 to 24 year oldsTunisia: 26.5% of women 15+, 22.6% of 15 to 24 year oldsTurkiye: 37.1% of women 15+, 22.9% of 15 to 24 year oldsTanzania: 80.3% of women 15+, 12.8% of 15 to 24 year oldsUganda: 75.6% of women 15+, 13.8% of 15 to 24 year oldsUkraine: 47.7% of women 15+, 16.5% of 15 to 24 year oldsUruguay: 57.3% of women 15+, 14% of 15 to 24 year oldsUnited States: 56.3% of women 15+, 11.6% of 15 to 24 year oldsViet Nam: 68.6% of women 15+, 10.3% of 15 to 24 year oldsVanuatu: 53.3% of women 15+, 29.3% of 15 to 24 year oldsSamoa: 30.7% of women 15+, 30.1% of 15 to 24 year oldsSouth Africa: 49.9% of women 15+, 34.6% of 15 to 24 year oldsZambia: 56.4% of women 15+, 26.7% of 15 to 24 year oldsZimbabwe: 62.2% of women 15+, 36% of 15 to 24 year oldsAFGBLRDZAEGYIRNISLKHMLBRMDGSDNSLBSOM

best-fit line line after adjusting

Four ways to measure the link

MethodrpCountries
Standard (Pearson), not adjusted-0.4722.4e-10162
By rank (Spearman), not adjusted-0.4472.6e-9162
Standard (Pearson), adjusted for national income-0.5286.1e-13162
By rank (Spearman), adjusted for national income-0.5152.7e-12162

The rank version uses only each country’s place in line, from lowest to highest, so a few extreme countries count for less. The adjusted and unadjusted versions use the same 162 countries: those that report both measures and GDP per person. So the gap between them comes from the adjustment, not from a change in which countries are counted. Drop in the size of r after adjusting: -0.057 (a minus sign means it grew).

How solid is it?

Leaving out one country at a time, r ranges from -0.594 (without BLR) to -0.512 (without SLB). The bar above shows that range on a scale from −1 to +1, with the solid line at the full result. The single country that moves r most: BLR (-0.066).

Within each region

Countries are not separate, unrelated cases, and neighbors share a lot. A link that holds inside each region is far more believable than one that shows up only when comparing regions.

nr
East Asia & Pacific23-0.59
Europe & Central Asia46-0.20
Latin America & Caribbean26-0.26
Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan17-0.38
Sub-Saharan Africa42-0.70

By income third

If the link shows up only in the richest third of countries, it is a feature of rich countries, not a general pattern.

nr
Poorest third54-0.74
Middle third54-0.22
Richest third54-0.49

By largest religious group

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

nr
Christians100-0.40
Muslims42-0.69

By last european coloniser

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

nr
France22-0.76
Never a European colony17-0.69
Spain18-0.70
United Kingdom49-0.49

Without outliers (countries far outside the middle half of countries on either measure, by more than one and a half times the width of that middle half): r = -0.533 after dropping 12 countries.

Two series, one country

Both measures over the years for one country you pick. The two charts are stacked so they share only the years along the bottom.

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Over time, within countries

Everything above compares countries with each other at one moment. This section compares each country only with itself over 36years. So a link here can’t come from anything about a country that stays the same, such as its history, geography, institutions or culture.

Within countries over time, there is no link that is clearly more than chance (r = -0.124, comparing each country only with itself over the years, and each year only with the same year elsewhere). Whatever the cross-country picture shows, countries whose female labor participation moved did not tend to see their youth not in work or study move with it.

Across countries (adjusted)-0.528for comparison
Within countries-0.252each country vs itself
…and vs the same year elsewhere-0.124q = 0.066 · 121 countries
Year-on-year changes-0.181q = 0.000
Read with care.
  • Almost all of this indicator's variation is between countries, not within them, so the within-country estimate rests on a small part of the data.

2,260 country-years (one country in one year), 121 countries, 1990–2025, about 19 years each on average. Share of the variation that happens within countries over time: 8% for Female labor participation, 22% for Youth not in work or study. The margins of error allow for each country appearing many times, and for each year’s value being close to the year before.

Year-to-year changes are a cautious test, not a final answer. Looking only at changes from one year to the next removes each country’s own trends. But it also makes measurement mistakes louder, which pulls the results toward zero. A near-zero result here is weak evidence of no link, not proof.

With one measure years behind the other

0.20−0.2-100+10years Youth not in work or study trails Female labor participation →lag -10: r = -0.036 (n = 1,280)lag -9: r = -0.054 (n = 1,388)lag -8: r = -0.064 (n = 1,483)lag -7: r = -0.097 (n = 1,569)lag -6: r = -0.074 (n = 1,678)lag -5: r = -0.088 (n = 1,795)lag -4: r = -0.072 (n = 1,904)lag -3: r = -0.067 (n = 2,028)lag -2: r = -0.099 (n = 2,132)lag -1: r = -0.102 (n = 2,224)lag +0: r = -0.124 (n = 2,260)lag +1: r = -0.067 (n = 2,244)lag +2: r = -0.025 (n = 2,228)lag +3: r = 0.015 (n = 2,213)lag +4: r = 0.054 (n = 2,199)lag +5: r = 0.065 (n = 2,181)lag +6: r = 0.076 (n = 2,163)lag +7: r = 0.088 (n = 2,138)lag +8: r = 0.101 (n = 2,110)lag +9: r = 0.106 (n = 2,085)lag +10: r = 0.110 (n = 2,049)

Same year (lag 0): -0.124. A peak away from zero does not show which comes first. These series change slowly — this year’s value is close to last year’s. That makes the curve smooth and nearly symmetric, whatever produced the data. Even a sharp peak at one lag (a gap of some years) would not prove that one measure changes the other.

The data


% of women 15+
% of 15 to 24 year olds		Years
Madagascar MDG82.9%24.3%2025, 2022
Solomon Islands SLB82.3%7.04%2025, 2013
Nigeria NGA80.7%11.9%2025, 2024
Tanzania TZA80.3%12.8%2025, 2024
Burundi BDI79.5%11.2%2025, 2020
Cambodia KHM77.4%6.32%2025, 2023
Mozambique MOZ77.1%19.2%2025, 2022
Uganda UGA75.6%13.8%2025, 2021
Benin BEN75.2%14.2%2025, 2022
Bolivia BOL72.9%8.02%2025, 2024
Niger NER72.8%15.7%2025, 2022
Moldova MDA72.3%9.05%2025
Angola AGO72.2%24.9%2025
Liberia LBR72%39.9%2025, 2017
Iceland ISL70%3.98%2025, 2024

World Bank, World Development Indicators
World Bank, World Development Indicators

Sources

Female labor participation

Labor force participation rate, female (% of female population 15+)

International Labour Organization · CC BY 4.0 · updated quarterly

Youth not in work or study

Share of youth not in education, employment or training, total (% of youth population)

International Labour Organization · CC BY 4.0 · updated quarterly

From labour force surveys, so yearly for about a hundred countries and occasional elsewhere.

How this was computed

Data used: most recent value in 2010-2025; values come from 2010–2025. To adjust for income, each measure is first predicted from GDP per person (in percentage terms, on a log scale) with a straight-line fit. Only what is left over is then compared. This is called a partial correlation. The line is drawn the standard way (ordinary least squares), which picks the line that comes closest to all the countries at once. The error margins allow for countries in the same region resembling each other, using 7 World Bank regions. The q-value corrects for testing all 12,497 pairs at once, using the Benjamini–Hochberg method. Underlying data last updated DYB 2024. How the country data works · explore Female labor participation and Youth not in work or study

This page shows that two measures go together. It does not show that Female labor participation changes Youth not in work or study, or the reverse. These figures also describe countries, not individual people. See the ecological fallacy.

More links with Female labor participation or Youth not in work or study