Countries With the Fastest Growth in Labour force participation rate (5-Year Change)

Name: Countries With the Fastest Growth in Labour force participation rate (5-Year Change)
Creator: The World Bank
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Change in Labour force participation rate over the five years to each country's latest year, in points (a share or rate is not shown as a % of itself). Only countries that rose are listed. Source: The World Bank (CC BY 4.0).

Summary

St. Lucia rose the most: by 14.5 pts, from 53.7% of population 15+ to 68.3% of population 15+ in the five years to 2025. Montenegro is second (+7.59 pts), followed by Botswana (+7.5 pts). 134 countries rose over that period; the median change among them was +1.5 pts.

#1: St. Lucia · +14.5 pts
Median: +1.5 pts
Coverage: 134 countries
Data year: 2025
Last updated: 2026-11-14

Top 10: 5-year change (points). Bar chart of the top 10: 1. St. Lucia 14.5; 2. Montenegro 7.59; 3. Botswana 7.5; 4. Philippines 6.6; 5. Bolivia 6.36; 6. Chile 5.95; 7. Argentina 5.89; 8. Serbia 5.77; 9. Bahamas, The 5.69; 10. Niger 5.6.

Full ranking

Countries With the Fastest Growth in Labour force participation rate (5-Year Change), 2025
Rank	Country	From	To	5-year change (points)
1	St. Lucia	53.7	68.3	+14.5 pts
2	Montenegro	50.4	58	+7.59 pts
3	Botswana	61.3	68.8	+7.5 pts
4	Philippines	54.7	61.4	+6.6 pts
5	Bolivia	72.3	78.6	+6.36 pts
6	Chile	56.4	62.3	+5.95 pts
7	Argentina	56	61.9	+5.89 pts
8	Serbia	53.4	59.1	+5.77 pts
9	Bahamas, The	68.1	73.8	+5.69 pts
10	Niger	74.1	79.7	+5.6 pts
11	El Salvador	56.5	62.1	+5.59 pts
12	Maldives	58.3	63.5	+5.2 pts
13	Mexico	56.4	61.6	+5.18 pts
14	Türkiye	49.3	54.4	+5.04 pts
15	South Africa	50.5	55.6	+5.04 pts
16	Albania	59.4	64.3	+4.9 pts
17	Jamaica	64.8	69.6	+4.73 pts
18	Dominican Republic	60.4	64.8	+4.47 pts
19	Ecuador	60	64.5	+4.46 pts
20	Belize	54.7	59.1	+4.42 pts
21	Guyana	50.7	55	+4.25 pts
22	Kuwait	69.2	73.4	+4.17 pts
23	India	51.5	55.7	+4.11 pts
24	Peru	68.9	72.9	+3.93 pts
25	Uruguay	61.1	65	+3.89 pts
26	Ireland	61.1	64.8	+3.75 pts
27	Venezuela, RB	48.2	51.9	+3.75 pts
28	Cabo Verde	53.4	57	+3.62 pts
29	Puerto Rico (US)	39.2	42.8	+3.53 pts
30	Equatorial Guinea	57	60.5	+3.51 pts
31	Nigeria	79.3	82.5	+3.2 pts
32	Gabon	47.9	51.1	+3.18 pts
33	Lao PDR	62.9	66.1	+3.18 pts
34	Fiji	54	57.2	+3.16 pts
35	Guam	59.2	62.3	+3.08 pts
36	Zimbabwe	64.7	67.7	+3.05 pts
37	Egypt, Arab Rep.	41.6	44.6	+2.95 pts
38	Libya	45	48	+2.94 pts
39	Congo, Rep.	64.9	67.8	+2.88 pts
40	Namibia	56	58.8	+2.86 pts
41	Mauritius	55.7	58.5	+2.83 pts
42	Denmark	62.1	64.9	+2.79 pts
43	Algeria	38	40.8	+2.74 pts
44	Saudi Arabia	62.4	65.1	+2.68 pts
45	Brazil	60.5	63.1	+2.66 pts
46	Moldova	69.7	72.3	+2.61 pts
47	Malta	61.5	64	+2.5 pts
48	Oman	66	68.4	+2.42 pts
49	Guinea-Bissau	62.5	64.8	+2.31 pts
50	Comoros	53.5	55.8	+2.3 pts
51	Côte d'Ivoire	64.9	67.1	+2.2 pts
52	Hungary	58.4	60.6	+2.13 pts
53	Estonia	63	65.1	+2.09 pts
54	Israel	63.4	65.5	+2.08 pts
55	Korea, Rep.	62.3	64.4	+2.08 pts
56	Uganda	78	80	+2.02 pts
57	Uzbekistan	55.5	57.5	+1.98 pts
58	Greece	50.1	52	+1.9 pts
59	Virgin Islands (US)	52.5	54.4	+1.9 pts
60	Nicaragua	64.4	66.1	+1.71 pts
61	Eswatini	49.5	51.2	+1.7 pts
62	Barbados	63.1	64.7	+1.58 pts
63	Benin	74.8	76.4	+1.58 pts
64	Korea, Dem. People's Rep.	80.6	82.2	+1.53 pts
65	Bosnia and Herzegovina	47.5	49	+1.52 pts
66	Slovak Republic	58.9	60.4	+1.52 pts
67	Australia	65	66.5	+1.51 pts
68	Japan	61.9	63.4	+1.5 pts
69	Tajikistan	36.8	38.3	+1.49 pts
70	Angola	73.3	74.8	+1.47 pts
71	Luxembourg	60.1	61.5	+1.4 pts
72	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	66.5	67.9	+1.38 pts
73	Iceland	73.6	74.9	+1.37 pts
74	Senegal	50.7	52	+1.3 pts
75	Cyprus	65.7	67	+1.23 pts
76	Iraq	40.3	41.5	+1.23 pts
77	Bahrain	69.2	70.4	+1.2 pts
78	Croatia	51	52.1	+1.17 pts
79	Suriname	52.7	53.8	+1.17 pts
80	Mali	65.9	67	+1.12 pts
81	Italy	48.2	49.3	+1.08 pts
82	France	54.3	55.3	+1.07 pts
83	Papua New Guinea	51	52.1	+1.07 pts
84	Zambia	60.9	61.9	+1.06 pts
85	Timor-Leste	65.9	67	+1.06 pts
86	Rwanda	62.7	63.7	+1.02 pts
87	Spain	56.4	57.4	+1.01 pts
88	West Bank and Gaza	44	45	+0.987 pts
89	Syrian Arab Republic	35.9	36.9	+0.987 pts
90	Singapore	68.7	69.7	+0.961 pts
91	Poland	57.4	58.3	+0.915 pts
92	Georgia	63.4	64.3	+0.913 pts
93	Madagascar	84.6	85.5	+0.906 pts
94	Belgium	53.4	54.3	+0.892 pts
95	Czechia	59.5	60.3	+0.881 pts
96	Tanzania	82.8	83.7	+0.879 pts
97	Congo, Dem. Rep.	63.4	64.3	+0.866 pts
98	Guatemala	58.8	59.6	+0.859 pts
99	Eritrea	77.5	78.3	+0.839 pts
100	Finland	58.8	59.7	+0.833 pts

Showing the top 100 of 134. Premium downloads the full list as CSV or JSON.

About the top 10

#1 St. Lucia

St. Lucia ranks #1 on this list with +14.5 pts.

Capital: Castries
Continent: North America
Income group: Upper middle income
Population: 180,150 people (2025)
GDP: US$2.66 billion (2025)
GDP per person: US$14,746 (2025)
Life expectancy: 72.8 years (2024)
Urban population: 29.1% of population (2025)

Also ranks #9 in homicide rate · #9 in immunisation (dpt) rate · #13 in population ages 15-64 share.

Full country profile

#2 Montenegro

Montenegro ranks #2 on this list with +7.59 pts.

Capital: Podgorica
Continent: Europe
Income group: Upper middle income
Population: 623,130 people (2025)
GDP: US$9.23 billion (2025)
GDP per person: US$14,817 (2025)
Life expectancy: 77.9 years (2024)
Urban population: 65.6% of population (2025)

Also ranks #3 in mobile subscriptions per 100 · #9 in bank branches per 100,000 adults · #10 in smoking prevalence.

Full country profile

#3 Botswana

Botswana ranks #3 on this list with +7.5 pts.

Capital: Gaborone
Continent: Africa
Income group: Upper middle income
Population: 2.56 million people (2025)
GDP: US$19.93 billion (2025)
GDP per person: US$7,778 (2025)
Life expectancy: 69.3 years (2024)
Urban population: 68% of population (2025)

Also ranks #4 in unemployment rate · #4 in hiv prevalence · #5 in youth unemployment rate.

Full country profile

#4 Philippines

Philippines ranks #4 on this list with +6.6 pts.

Capital: Manila
Continent: Asia
Income group: Upper middle income
Population: 116.79 million people (2025)
GDP: US$487.09 billion (2025)
GDP per person: US$4,171 (2025)
Life expectancy: 69.9 years (2024)
Urban population: 55.8% of population (2025)

Largest cities: Metro Manila, Quezon City, Manila.

Also ranks #4 in remittances received · #4 in low-birthweight babies share · #7 in annual freshwater withdrawals.

Full country profile

#5 Bolivia

Bolivia ranks #5 on this list with +6.36 pts.

Capital: La Paz, Sucre
Continent: South America
Income group: Lower middle income
Population: 12.58 million people (2025)
GDP: US$64.77 billion (2025)
GDP per person: US$5,148 (2025)
Life expectancy: 68.7 years (2024)
Urban population: 71.6% of population (2025)

Largest cities: Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

Also ranks #2 in real effective exchange rate index · #3 in bank branches per 100,000 adults · #4 in women in parliament share.

Full country profile

#6 Chile

Chile ranks #6 on this list with +5.95 pts.

Capital: Santiago
Continent: South America
Income group: High income
Population: 19.86 million people (2025)
GDP: US$357.37 billion (2025)
GDP per person: US$17,995 (2025)
Life expectancy: 81.4 years (2024)
Urban population: 89.2% of population (2025)

Largest cities: Santiago, Santo Domingo.

Also ranks #5 in mineral rents share of gdp · #7 in school enrolment (tertiary) · #10 in fish production.

Full country profile

#7 Argentina

Argentina ranks #7 on this list with +5.89 pts.

Capital: Buenos Aires
Continent: South America
Income group: Upper middle income
Population: 45.85 million people (2025)
GDP: US$683.1 billion (2025)
GDP per person: US$14,898 (2025)
Life expectancy: 77.5 years (2024)
Urban population: 92.4% of population (2025)

Largest cities: Greater Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Córdoba.

Also ranks #1 in inflation rate · #2 in access to clean cooking fuels · #2 in deposit interest rate.

Full country profile

#8 Serbia

Serbia ranks #8 on this list with +5.77 pts.

Capital: Belgrade
Continent: Europe
Income group: Upper middle income
Population: 6.55 million people (2025)
GDP: US$99.95 billion (2025)
GDP per person: US$15,262 (2025)
Life expectancy: 76 years (2024)
Urban population: 62.6% of population (2025)

Largest cities: City of Belgrade, Belgrade.

Also ranks #3 in death rate · #4 in smoking prevalence · #13 in age dependency ratio (old).

Full country profile Weather in Belgrade (Purr Weather)

#9 Bahamas, The

Bahamas, The ranks #9 on this list with +5.69 pts.

Capital: Nassau
Continent: North America
Income group: High income
Population: 403,030 people (2025)
GDP: US$15.83 billion (2024)
GDP per person: US$39,455 (2024)
Life expectancy: 74.7 years (2024)
Urban population: 81.3% of population (2025)

Also ranks #6 in access to clean cooking fuels · #10 in homicide rate · #10 in cereal yield.

Full country profile

#10 Niger

Niger ranks #10 on this list with +5.6 pts.

Capital: Niamey
Continent: Africa
Income group: Low income
Population: 27.92 million people (2025)
GDP: US$21.65 billion (2025)
GDP per person: US$775.4 (2025)
Life expectancy: 61.4 years (2024)
Urban population: 18.4% of population (2025)

Largest cities: Niamey.

Also ranks #1 in agriculture value added share of gdp · #2 in under-5 mortality rate · #3 in population ages 0-14 share.

Full country profile

Profile facts: World Bank (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata (CC0); weather links go to Purr Weather, another ChowChow Labs site.

Source and method

Change in Labour force participation rate over the five years to each country's latest year, in points (a share or rate is not shown as a % of itself). Only countries that rose are listed.

Source: The World Bank, indicator SL.TLF.CACT.ZS. Licence: CC BY 4.0. Retrieved: 2026-11-14.

The World Bank: Labor force participation rate, total (% of total population ages 15+) (modeled ILO estimate): ILO Modelled Estimates database (ILOEST), International Labour Organization (ILO) (via World Development Indicators)

Original data provider, as recorded by the World Bank: ILO Modelled Estimates database (ILOEST), International Labour Organization (ILO).

Values are shown as published (changes are computed from the published values). Provider terms: The World Bank. All licences: Sources & licences.

Summary

Full ranking

About the top 10

#1 St. Lucia

#2 Montenegro

#3 Botswana

#4 Philippines

#5 Bolivia

#6 Chile

#7 Argentina

#8 Serbia

#9 Bahamas, The

#10 Niger

Related rankings

Source and method