economy layer
Female Labour Force Participation
Share of women aged 15 and older who are in the labour force. The labour force includes employed and unemployed women. A high participation rate is not automatically evidence of gender equality or good jobs.
Methodology
Values are World Bank World Development Indicators SL.TLF.CACT.FE.ZS: female labour-force participation rate, female population ages 15 and older, ILO modelled estimates (ILOEST). The original producer is the International Labour Organization; World Bank WDI is the import and redistribution path. Direct ILOSTAT reuse and the national-estimate code SL.TLF.CACT.FE.NE.ZS are not used. The figure is the share of women aged 15 and older who are employed or unemployed. It is not the female employment-to-population ratio (SL.EMP.TOTL.SP.FE.ZS), not both-sexes participation, not the 15-64 code SL.TLF.ACTI.FE.ZS, and not a female-to-male ratio. The denominator is all women aged 15 and older, not ages 15-64. Informal, family, farm, own-account, and some subsistence work can put a woman in the labour force under the ILO short-reference-period definition. The indicator does not measure female employment, wages, hours, job quality, gender equality, or women's rights. A high participation rate is not automatically evidence of equality; it can reflect economic necessity. A low rate is not automatically evidence of discrimination; it can reflect unpaid care, education, retirement, labour institutions, demographic structure, or legal barriers. Values are internationally harmonized modelled estimates. WDI does not provide a usable row-level observed-versus-imputed flag, so the layer is classified as modelled rather than labour-force survey results. Source revisions can alter historical values. 2025 is omitted because the January 2026 ILO methodology cycle treats that year as having projection or nowcast character. 2026-2027 projections are not imported. OurBlueDot does not interpolate, fill missing years, carry the last value forward, replace missing values with zero, mix national estimates, use OECD or Eurostat 15-64 values as fills, average sex-specific series, import the female employment twin, or splice direct ILOSTAT values into this WDI vintage. Country rows are joined by ISO 3166-1 alpha-3; regional and income aggregates are excluded. Territories outside UN-193, including WDI entities PSE and XKX, are not added to the country registry. Map ranks are comparable-sample competition ranks among currently loaded countries (rank 1 is the highest female labour-force participation share). Ranks compare participation among countries with a value for the selected year. A higher rank does not mean a better country for women or a more equal labour market. Missing countries remain without a value.
Coverage & source
- Source
- World Bank World Development Indicators
- License
- CC BY 4.0
- Period
- 2024
- Frequency
- Annual
Rankings, where shown, describe only countries with comparable values in the selected period. Rank 1 is the highest female labour-force participation share among countries with a value, not the best country for women. A higher rank does not mean greater gender equality.