Africa Check
- The UN’s International Labour Organization ranks Nigeria 38th out of 185 countries in the world with an unemployment rate of 10.7%, based on 2019 data.
- However, the most recent official numbers did give the unemployment rate for the fourth quarter of 2020 as 33.3%. But this is not based on current ILO standards and can’t be directly compared with other countries.
- If these standards were applied, the country would rank 41st out of 181 countries, according to the country’s statistics office. More recent data will be published in 2023.
In August 2023, several Nigerian newspapers reported that the country had the highest unemployment rate in the world.
“Nigeria tops global unemployment rating” read some of the headlines. Similar headlines can be seen here, here and here.
Almost all the articles cited the “latest statistics released by the World of Statistics”, and used the same figure of 33.3%.
With the rising cost of living, unemployment is one of the indicators Nigerians care about.
But is it correct to say Nigeria has the world’s highest unemployment rate, and that it is 33.3%? Africa Check checked and concluded that it is INCORRECT.
Following the flurry of news reports, Africa Check found the source – a tweet dated 7 August 2022 from the World of Statistics account on X, formerly known as Twitter. The account tweets statistics on everything from inflation rates to breast sizes by country, with its bio stating that “there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics”.
The tweet in question ranked 58 countries and the “euro area” by unemployment rate. Many of the countries in the list are also part of the 20-member euro area.
Nigeria topped the list with 33.3%, followed by South Africa with 32.9%. The next country, Iraq, with 15.55%, had less than half the unemployment rate of these two countries.
However, the account did not give a source for these or for many of the other statistics it shares. There is also no evidence that it is affiliated to the World of Statistics, a global organization with 2,300 members.
The account has a YouTube account and no website, and refers enquiries to its founder “Denis”. Its tweets are regularly repeated – the 7 August tweet quoted in the Nigerian media was tweeted at least five times in June and four times in July, with other media carrying the same claims as early as 3 July.
Three days later, on 10 August, the account tweeted the same unemployment statistics – but for 27 countries, and this time Nigeria was conspicuously absent from the top of the list, which was now led by South Africa.
Africa Check emailed the account with a number of questions about the two lists, but have…
