These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the Netherlands (4.3%), Luxembourg (4.5%) and Austria (4.8%), and the highest in Spain (20.5%), Lithuania (17.4% in the fourth quarter of 2010) and Latvia (17.3% in the fourth quarter of 2010).
Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in thirteen Member States, remained stable in two and increased in twelve. The largest falls were observed in Latvia (20.1% to 17.3% between the fourth quarters of 2009 and 2010), Estonia (16.1% to 14.3% between the fourth quarters of 2009 and 2010) and Sweden (8.8% to 7.6%).
The highest increases were registered in Greece (10.2% to 14.1% between the fourth quarters of 2009 and 2010), Bulgaria (9.4% to 11.6%) and Ireland (13.0% to 14.9%).
Between February 2010 and February 2011, the unemployment rate for males fell from 9.9% to 9.7% in the euro area and from 9.8% to 9.5% in the EU27. The female unemployment rate increased from 10.1% to 10.2% in the euro area and from 9.4% to 9.6% in the EU27.
In February 2011, the youth unemployment rate (under-25s) was 19.4% in the euro area and 20.4% in the EU27. In February 2010 it was 20.5% and 20.9% respectively. The lowest rates were observed in the Netherlands (7.4%) and Germany (7.9%), and the highest in Spain (43.5%) and Greece (36.1% in the fourth quarter of 2010).
In February 2011, the unemployment rate was 8.9% in the USA and 4.6% in Japan.
