What is Load Average (LA) in Linux, and in what units is it measured?

Load Average (LA) in Linux is the average number of processes that are in the running state or waiting to run (in the CPU queue or waiting for I/O) over a specific period of time. Usually, three numbers are displayed — the average over the last 1, 5, and 15 minutes.

The units of measurement are simply the number of processes (a count), without any dimension. For example, a value of 2.5 means that on average, 2.5 processes were active or waiting for resources during the specified period.

Load Average helps assess the system load and understand how busy the CPU and other resources are.