Countries ranked by labour force participation

United Arab Emirates ranks first in this current highest-to-lowest comparison at 78.6%.

The share of the working-age population in the labour force, employed or looking for work. It says how many people are in the market, not how easy it is to enter it.

Items compared: 39
Countries represented: 39
Last checked: 2026-08-07

Source-backed answers

Compare each answer with its unit and checked date; the complete source ledger is below.

Showing all 39 rows

Original rank	Country			Source and scope
1	United Arab Emirates	78.6%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
2	Iceland	74.9%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
3	New Zealand	70.4%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
4	Netherlands	67.2%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
5	Cyprus	67.0%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
6	Australia	66.8%	2026-07-22	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
7	Switzerland	66.7%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
8	Norway	65.6%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
9	Estonia	65.1%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
10	Saudi Arabia	65.1%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
11	Denmark	64.9%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
12	Ireland	64.8%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
13	Sweden	64.6%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
14	Canada	64.5%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
15	South Korea	64.4%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
16	Malta	64.0%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
17	Japan	63.4%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
18	Lithuania	62.9%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
19	United States	61.7%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
20	Luxembourg	61.5%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
21	United Kingdom	61.4%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
22	Hungary	60.6%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
23	Germany	60.6%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
24	Latvia	60.5%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
25	Slovakia	60.4%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
26	Czechia	60.3%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
27	Austria	60.1%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
28	Finland	59.7%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
29	Poland	58.3%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
30	Portugal	58.2%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
31	Slovenia	57.6%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
32	Spain	57.4%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
33	Bulgaria	56.1%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
34	France	55.3%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
35	Belgium	54.3%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
36	Croatia	52.1%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
37	Greece	52.0%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
38	Romania	51.3%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31
39	Italy	49.3%	2026-08-07	Source Scope: country · Period: 2025-12-31

What the numbers say

United Arab Emirates leads at 78.59 %.
Italy sits at the other end with 49.3 %.
The middle of this ranking is 61.5 %, across 39 places that publish the metric.
The spread between first and last is 29.29 %.

Quick answer

What does Countries ranked by labour force participation show?

United Arab Emirates ranks first in this current highest-to-lowest comparison at 78.6%.

How this list is built

Require all component metrics for the same country, keep their source records, calculate labour_force_participation_rate_percent, then sort descending.

The report states exactly which components are included.
Application and filing fees are excluded.

Rows: 39 countries
Geographic grain: country
Observation period: 2025-12-31
Last checked: 2026-08-07
With an official source link: 39 of 39

Cite this page

Open a format to select or copy this ImmigrationDB compilation citation. The native disclosure and text fallback work without JavaScript.

APA citation

ImmigrationDB. (2026, September 29). Countries ranked by labour force participation [ImmigrationDB compilation; version 4c75df31ec118ae14fea3efd03211928]. ImmigrationDB. https://immigrationdb.com/reports/countries-ranked-by-labour-force-participation/ Retrieved 2026-09-29. Compilation license: CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

BibTeX citation

@misc{immigrationdb_immigrationdb_countries-ranked-by-labour-force-participation_ccd2ff12b757,
  author = {ImmigrationDB},
  title = {Countries ranked by labour force participation},
  publisher = {ImmigrationDB},
  year = {2026},
  date = {2026-09-29},
  version = {4c75df31ec118ae14fea3efd03211928},
  url = {https://immigrationdb.com/reports/countries-ranked-by-labour-force-participation/},
  note = {Retrieved 2026-09-29. ImmigrationDB compilation. Compilation license: CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/},
}

Markdown citation

[Countries ranked by labour force participation](https://immigrationdb.com/reports/countries-ranked-by-labour-force-participation/) — ImmigrationDB; ImmigrationDB; version 4c75df31ec118ae14fea3efd03211928; retrieved 2026-09-29; built 2026-09-29.

This citation identifies the ImmigrationDB compilation/page. Underlying source publishers and datasets retain their own terms; inspect the Sources section and cite those records separately. View the underlying source records.

Sources

World Bank Open DataWorld Bank Open Data · Checked 2026-08-07
Labour Force, Australia — December 2025Labour Force, Australia — December 2025 · Checked 2026-07-22