EU policy considers that after finishing secondary school, young people should either obtain a job or enter further education and training: if not, they should receive appropriate support through active labour market or social measures.
The Youth guarantee has been designed a mean to support this approach.
The indicator below is the NEET rate, defined as the share of 18-24 year-olds not in employment, education or training. Young people are considered to be NEET, if they are not employed and if they have not received any education or training in the four weeks preceding the survey.
Figure 30: NEET rate for 18-24 year-olds (%)
Source: Eurostat, EU labour force survey.
Key points
In 2016, the EU average NEET rate was at 15.2%. Italy, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, and Croatia had NEET rates above 20%. In contrast, Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, Malta, Luxembourg, Denmark, and the Netherlands all had NEET rates below 10% in 2016.
Between 2010 and 2016 the NEET rate fell from 16.6% to 15.2% across the EU as a whole, with the sharpest drops being reported in Lithuania, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, and Ireland.
Among the non-EU countries for which data are available, Turkey and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia both had high NEET rates (above 30%), while Iceland, Norway and Switzerland had rates below 10%.
Table 30: NEET rate for 18-24 year-olds (%)
Arrows ↗ or ↘ signal a positive or negative trend based on more than two data points and of magnitude 0.1 per year or more. Trends based on more than two data points but of smaller magnitude are indicated by →; trends based on two points only are marked ▪. Trends are estimated by means of regression models.
(b) Break after 2010. Therefore baseline data not included. (u) Eurostat: "low reliability". (z) Eurostat: "not applicable". (e) Eurostat: "estimated".
Source: Eurostat, EU labour force survey.
Data insights details
