A percentile ranks a value within a set of values. If unemployment is at the 24th percentile of its history since 1999, it has been lower only 24% of the time and higher 76% of the time.
It answers a question that the raw number cannot: is this level normal for this series? A 4.5% unemployment rate is high for some countries and periods and low for others.
Why it matters
Economic series move in cycles, and extremes tend not to last. A reading in the top or bottom tenth of its history is worth noting, though percentiles say nothing about timing: a series can stay extreme for years.
On FinVolio
Shown in the key statistics on every indicator page, alongside the long-run average and the 10-year range.
General information, not advice.