Together with the adoption of the Communication "An EU Strategy for Youth - Investing and Empowering", outlining a new youth cooperation framework in the European Union, the Commission is also publishing a Youth Report.

The Youth Report is a compilation of data, statistics and brief analyses on the situation of young people in Europe. It provides an overview of the situation in the EU Member States in a range of different areas and outlines as well the differences between countries.

The Youth Report is the first such report to be published by the Commission. It was requested by the Council of the European Union and is expected to be published every three years.

The objective of this first Youth Report is twofold. First, it is to support the new youth cooperation framework by collecting much of the available statistics and data on the situation of young people. Second, it responds to the obligation for evidence-based policy making, i.e. to base all efforts to address young people's challenges and improve their situation on clear evidence.

The report also gives some indications as to where there is a lack of research and data on youth and outlines possible avenues for future improvement. The primary sources are data and statistics from Eurostat, plus additional figures and a number of surveys and data from various other sources.