Although 40 per cent of young men or more participate in the labour force in 11 of the 15 countries, fewer than 25 per cent of young women do in any of those 15 countries. In Mauritania, just 2 per cent of young women participate, followed by 9 per cent in Jordan and Iraq. The largest absolute difference between the labour force participation rates among young men and women was reported for the State of Palestine, at 41 percentage points. In Bahrain and Kuwait, the relative difference between rates for men and women is the smallest, the youth labour force participation rate among women there is more than half that of men. In general, most men outside the labour force are students and most women outside the labour force are homemakers.