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Botswana’s Unemployment Rate, by Instrument

Five figures are in circulation, from 21.0% to 46.0%. They measure different populations with different instruments. Here is each one with what it covers.

Updated

What is the unemployment rate in Botswana?

There is no single correct figure, and anyone who gives you one without naming an instrument is choosing rather than reporting. Statistics Botswana currently publishes two rates for the whole population aged 15 and over — 21.0% and 27.6% — from two different surveys, neither of which supersedes the other. A third widely quoted figure, 46.0%, is not a Botswana survey at all: it is a World Bank modelled estimate for ages 15 to 24, an age band Botswana does not use.

Every figure in circulation

Botswana’s Unemployment Rate, by Instrument. Each row gives the value, what it measures, the population, the reference period and the instrument behind it.
FigureMeasuresPopulationPeriodBasisInstrument
21.0%Unemployment ratePersons aged 15 and overFieldwork Nov 2024 – Nov 2025SurveyBotswana Multi-Topic Household Survey 2024/25, Labour Force Preliminary Stats Brief (Version 2)The newest figure, from the largest instrument. The brief is a Version 2, reissued because the original misstated the 2015/16 unemployed count as 280,482 instead of 147,206.
27.6%Unemployment ratePersons aged 15 and overQuarter 1, 2024SurveyQuarterly Multi-Topic Survey, Labour Force Module, Q1 2024The last quarterly labour force release published. Officials and outlets quoting "28 percent" through 2026 are quoting this, a figure with a Q1 2024 reference period.
28.9%Youth unemployment rateYouth aged 15 to 35Fieldwork Nov 2024 – Nov 2025SurveyBotswana Multi-Topic Household Survey 2024/25Botswana defines youth as 15 to 35, which is a wider band than most countries use and is the reason direct international comparison fails.
38.2%Youth unemployment rateYouth aged 15 to 35Quarter 1, 2024SurveyQuarterly Multi-Topic Survey, Labour Force Module, Q1 2024Same age band as the row above, 9.3 points apart, because the instrument differs. This pair is the clearest demonstration that the instrument matters more than the number.
46.0%Youth unemployment rateYouth aged 15 to 242025ModelledWorld Development Indicators, series SLUEM1524ZSBWA — modelled ILO estimateThe figure most often returned by search, and the least comparable. It is a model fitted for cross-country consistency, not a Botswana survey result, and it uses ages 15 to 24 — not the 15 to 35 band Botswana reports on.
27.3%Extended unemployment rate, including people who want work but have stopped searchingPersons aged 15 and overFieldwork Nov 2024 – Nov 2025SurveyBotswana Multi-Topic Household Survey 2024/25Down from 33.5% in 2015/16, while the strict rate rose. Whether the labour market improved or deteriorated depends entirely on which of the two you lead with.
37.1%Not in employment, education or training (NEET)Youth aged 15 to 35Fieldwork Nov 2024 – Nov 2025SurveyBotswana Multi-Topic Household Survey 2024/25Down from 39.9% in 2015/16. NEET counts a different thing again: it includes people outside the labour force entirely, so it is never interchangeable with an unemployment rate.

How to quote these

  • Name the instrument and the reference period every time. "Unemployment in Botswana is 21%" is a choice between two official answers presented as a fact.
  • Check the age band before comparing anything internationally. Botswana reports youth as 15 to 35; most cross-country series use 15 to 24.
  • Check whether the figure was surveyed or modelled. A modelled estimate exists to be comparable across countries, which is the opposite of being accurate about one.
  • Do not mix a strict rate with an extended rate or a NEET rate. They count different populations and move independently.
  • Prefer the reference period to the publication date. A brief published in 2026 can carry fieldwork that ended in 2024.

Worked through in full

Citing this page

TAJI Learning, “Botswana’s Unemployment Rate, by Instrument”, updated October 2026. https://www.tajilearningstudio.com/figures/botswana-unemployment-rate

Every figure above links to the publication it came from. Cite the underlying source where you can; cite this page where the point is that the sources disagree.