Rwanda unemployment rate rose to 15.6% in the third quarter
The national statistics office reported unemployment was 2.2 percentage points higher than a year earlier, with higher rates among women and young people.
Event / data period: 2026-08
Published: · Updated:
The August 2026 survey estimated Rwanda’s working-age population at 8.8 million. About 4.8 million people were employed, 878,000 were unemployed and 3.2 million were outside the labour force. The unemployment rate was 15.6%.
The rate was 18.3% for women and 13.3% for men, and 18.8% for people aged 16–30 versus 13.1% for adults. Unemployment measures jobseekers as a share of the labour force; it is different from the employment-to-population ratio.
Data
Unemployment rate by group
August 2026 labour-force survey.
| Overall | 15.6 |
| Women | 18.3 |
| Men | 13.3 |
| Age 16–30 | 18.8 |
| Urban | 14.8 |
| Rural | 16 |
Methodology
Rates are transcribed; subgroup definitions follow the source.
Updated:
Subjects and places
Subject proposals
- EconomySuggested
- Preserved editorial category/topic; broad candidate onlystatistics.gov.rw ↗
- UnemploymentSuggested
- Subject suggested from the title or summary: unemploymentstatistics.gov.rw ↗
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- Rwanda · Place role: Coverage · Place type: Country or area · Location precision: RegionalEvidence
- Explicit preserved editorial country/region; no city or national centroid inferredstatistics.gov.rw ↗