Statistics
(Brussels) Around 15 million young people aged 20 to 34 were neither in employment nor in education and training (the so-called NEETs) in Europe in 2018. This accounts for one in six young people, that is, 16.5% of the youth population. This is according to the latest figures released by Eurostat today, which provide a grim picture of the situation by country: Italy has the worst record, with the highest NEET rate (28.9%), followed by Greece (26.8%), Bulgaria (20.9%), Romania (20.6%), Slovakia (20%) and Spain (19.6%). Other countries with rates higher than the EU average are Croatia, France, Cyprus and Hungary, while the best performing countries are Sweden, with a NEET rate of only 8%, the Netherlands (8.4%), Luxembourg and Malta (around 10%), Austria and Denmark (between 10 and 11%). Another reason for concern in the already difficult situation of youth is the NEET rate for women aged 20 to 34, which was 20.9% in 2018, compared with 12.2% for 20-34 year old men. In Italy, the figures by gender show that 34.2% of young women were not in education, employment or training last year compared with 23.8% of young men.
