Statistics on young people neither in employment nor in education or training

Data extracted in May 2025.

Planned article update: May 2026.

Highlights

In 2024, 11% of 15–29-year-olds in the EU were neither in employment nor in education and training.

The proportion of 15–29-year-olds in the EU neither in employment nor in education and training in 2024 ranged from 5% in the Netherlands to 19% in Romania.

Young people (aged 15-29) neither in employment nor in education and training, 2024

This article presents statistics related to young people neither in employment nor in education or training (NEET) in the European Union (EU) and forms part of the online publication Education and training in the EU - facts and figures. It is important to make sure that the transition from education to work is smooth for young adults and also to highlight the risks of being in this situation. There are risks, both for the individual and in the long run for society, if young adults find themselves disengaged from both education and the labour market.

While background information is provided for those aged 15–34 years, the main age group analysed in this article is young adults aged 15 to 29 years. For this age group, the EU has set an EU-level target that the share of young NEET people should be less than 9% by 2030. In 2024, the EU average for this was 11.0%. However, there are differences between EU countries, as several countries have already reached the 2030 goal.

To what extent are young adults neither in employment nor in education or training? The transition from education to work

Over time, the transition from education to work has become more complex. Today young people are changing jobs more frequently and it takes longer to become established on the labour market, either by choice or necessity. It has become more common for students in post-secondary education to work part-time or seasonally to supplement their income. Furthermore, it has also become more common for young working people to return to education or training to improve their qualifications. As a result of this, the transition from education to work has become less clear, with a growing share of students also working and a rising proportion of people in employment also studying.

In Figure 1 the transition from education to work is illustrated by showing both the employment and the education or training status for young people aged between 15 and 34 years by 5-year age groups. The figure shows that being employed (but not in education and training) increases with age, while the opposite is true for education (not employed but in education and training) where the share decreases considerably with age.

Additionally, in 2024, 12.3% of young people aged 15–19 years in the EU were both employed and in education and so making use of this more flexible transition from education to work. The share rose to 22.7% among those aged 20–24 years, before falling somewhat for older age groups, 17.9% among those aged 25–29 years and 13.5% for those aged 30–34 years.

Figure 1: Employment, education and training status of young people, by age, EU, 2024
Source: Eurostat (edat_lfse_18)

An important factor to analyse among young adults transitioning from education to work is the risk of becoming a person neither in employment nor in education and training (NEET). In Figure 1 it is shown that the level of NEETs in the respective age groups varies and that the share increases with age. This pattern is plausible since a vast majority of young people aged 15–19 years in the EU remain in education and training, either formal or non-formal. Therefore, it is not surprising to find that relatively few people in this age group (5.4%) were NEETs in 2024.

Neither in employment nor in education and training: NEET

Statistics for employment and unemployment have traditionally been used to describe labour markets, in other words, providing data on people who have jobs and those who are actively looking for one. However, an analysis of the labour market participation of younger people is somewhat different, especially when:

a large proportion of young people are still attending school, college, university, other higher education establishment or training, and
another group of young people are neither in employment (unemployed or outside the labour force), nor in education or training (NEETs).

The share of young people outside employment/education/training is an indicator that measures the proportion of a given subpopulation who are not employed and not involved in any further education or training; these people may be subdivided into those who are unemployed and those who are considered outside the labour force (in other words, they do not have a job and they are not actively seeking employment).

NEET rate within the EU and its countries in 2024

Given that the EU is striving to lower the rate of young people who are NEETs for people aged 15–29 years to 9% by 2030, the focus is on this age group.

Across the EU countries there were wide variations in 2024 when looking at the NEET rates for this age group, see Figure 2. The lowest rates already below the target of 9.0% could be found in the Netherlands, Sweden, Malta, Ireland, Slovenia, Denmark, Germany, Czechia and Portugal. These countries had therefore reached the long-term EU-level target for 2030 by 2024 or earlier.

Furthermore, there were 8 countries that recorded NEET rates above the EU average of 11.0% in 2024. Among these, the highest rates were recorded in Greece, Lithuania, Italy and Romania, where 14% or more of all young people aged 15–29 years were neither in employment nor in education or training.

A comparison between the 2 countries with the highest and lowest NEET rates in 2024 reveals that the proportion of young adults who were NEETs was 4 times higher in Romania than in the Netherlands.

The overall share of NEETs decreased in the EU by -4.7 percentage points (pp) between 2014 and 2024. Among EU countries, the largest reduction by far in the NEET rates (in percentage point terms) between 2014 and 2024 was in Greece (-12.5 pp) followed by Bulgaria (-11.3 pp), Croatia (-11.1 pp), Italy (-11.0 pp) and Ireland (-10.2 pp).

There were also 2 countries that had increases in their NEET rates since 2014: Lithuania (+1.8 pp) and Luxembourg (+3.4 pp). Denmark recorded the same NEET rates in both years.

Figure 2: Young people (aged 15–29) neither in employment nor in education and training, 2014 and 2024
Source: Eurostat (edat_lfse_20)

Development of NEETs in the EU over time for different age groups

Figure 3 shows the development of NEETs for different age groups within the EU from 2014 to 2024. The share of NEETs continuously decreased from 2014 until 2019. However, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the share of young adults neither in employment nor in education or training rose. This is natural since the NEET rate for young people is closely linked to economic performance and the business cycle.

After peaking in 2020, the share of NEETs decreased constantly for all age groups (except 15–19-year-olds, where the peak was in 2021). For the 15–29 age group (the EU-level target), the share of NEETs was 11.0% in 2024. The corresponding share was

5.4% for those aged 15–19 years
12.8% for those aged 20–24 years
14.6% for those aged 25–29 years

Thus, in 2024 the share of NEETs was lower than before the onset of the pandemic for all age groups, which can be seen as a sign of recovery.

Figure 3: Young people neither in employment nor in education and training, by age, EU, 2014–2024
Source: Eurostat (edat_lfse_20)

Educational attainment level affects the share of NEETs

Educational attainment levels

Figure 4 shows young NEETs by educational attainment level. The three different levels of educational attainment are

less than primary, primary or lower secondary level of education (International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED 2011 levels 0–2) – referred to as a low educational attainment level or low level of education
upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary education (ISCED 2011 levels 3 and 4) – referred to as a medium educational attainment level or medium level of education
tertiary education (ISCED 2011 levels 5–8) – referred to as a high educational attainment level or high level of education

In 2024, the NEET rate for young people aged 15–29 years in the EU was 12.6% among those with a low level of education, compared with 11.3% among those with a medium level of education and 7.9% among those with a high level of education (see Figure 4).

NEET rates in the EU countries for people aged 15–29 years with a low level of education ranged from 5.9% in Ireland to 34.4% in Romania in 2024. Looking more closely at these figures, 10 countries had higher NEET rates than the average for the EU and these countries were: Austria (12.9%), Italy (13.3%), Slovakia and Cyprus (both 14.0%), Hungary (14.2%), France (14.4%), Lithuania (15.8%), Spain (16.2%), Bulgaria (16.5%) and Romania (34.4%).

Among young people aged 15–29 years with a medium level of education, NEET rates ranged from 4.4% in the Netherlands up to a peak of 17.9% in Lithuania. For this level of education, 3 countries recorded a NEET rate of 17% or higher (Greece, Italy and Lithuania) while the only country with a share lower than 5% was the Netherlands.

Concerning people aged 15–29 years with tertiary education, their NEET rates were in general considerably lower than for the other levels of education. The lowest share was 3.7% in Sweden but a value as high as 16.8% was reported in Greece.

Figure 4: Young people (aged 15–29) neither in employment nor in education and training, by educational attainment level, 2024
Source: Eurostat (edat_lfse_21)

It is common to have high NEET rates for people with a low level of education and low NEET rates for people with a high level of education. Comparing the 3 levels of education at country level, NEET rates were almost always higher for young adults with a low or medium level of education compared with tertiary education, the only exception being Czechia, where 10.0% of people with a high level of education are NEETs while the shares for medium and low levels are lower (9.9% and 6.6% respectively).

Looking at the other end of the scale, young adults with tertiary education recorded the lowest NEET rates in 2024 in all but 6 countries (namely Czechia, Ireland, Greece, Croatia, Latvia and Poland) where the lowest NEET rates were found for those with low level of education.

Young women are more likely to be NEET than young men

Figure 5 shows that there is a difference between the sexes in relation to the proportion of young adults who were neither in employment nor in education or training. In 2024, 12.1% of young women aged 15–29 years in the EU were NEETs, while the corresponding share among young men was 2.1 percentage points lower, at 10.0%.

There are a range of factors that may explain the gender gap. For example, social conventions or pressures, which tend to place a higher importance on women's role within the family and on men's role to provide for the family through work.

Figure 5: Young people (aged 15–29) neither in employment nor in education and training, by sex, 2024
Source: Eurostat (edat_lfse_20)

In 2024, there were 2 countries where the proportion of young female NEETs was at least 9 pp higher than the corresponding share for young men. The largest difference was found in Romania (11.2 pp), followed by Czechia (9.4 pp). However, 4 countries had higher NEET rates for men compared with women but to a much lesser extent: Estonia, Finland, Belgium and Sweden.

Of these, Estonia had the largest difference; here the share for men was 2.2 pp higher than for women. There were 3 countries, where the NEET rates were about the same for women and men (+/- 0.2 pp): Portugal, Croatia and Spain.

As young women become older they are more often neither in employment nor in education or training

An analysis of the 3 different age groups of young people (aged 15–19, 20–24 and 25–29) shows that the EU gender gap for NEETs increased in relation to age in 2024, see Figures 6 and 7. For the youngest age group, men had a higher share of NEETs than women, the difference was 0.5 pp. In the next age group, 20–24, there is a shift and the NEET rate for young women was about the same as the rate for men, only 0.2 pp higher than those for young men. Among people aged 25–29 years the gap between the sexes widened to 6.4 pp.

In 2024, the NEET rate for young people aged 15–19 years was lower for women than it was for men in all EU countries except in Romania, Cyprus, Hungary, Poland and Greece.

Among people aged 20–24 years the picture was more mixed and 14 countries had a lower NEET rate for women compared with men, while 12 countries had a higher NEET rate for women. For the remaining country, the figure for one sex is not available due to the sample size being too small.

Furthermore, there were large differences between countries. Italy had almost no difference between the sexes while Romania reported the largest difference; here the NEET rate for women was 12.2 percentage points higher than the corresponding rate for men.

As previously said, the EU gender gap for NEETs increased in relation to age and this is clear when looking at the oldest age group, those aged 25–29 years. For this group the NEET rate was consistently higher for women than for men in all EU countries except Belgium and Finland, where the shares for men were slightly higher than for women, and Estonia, where the shares for women and men were equal. The range of higher NEET rates for women compared to men was between 0.3 pp in Sweden and 22.9 pp in Czechia.

Figure 6: Young men neither in employment nor in education and training, by age, 2024
Source: Eurostat (edat_lfse_20)

Figure 7: Young women neither in employment nor in education and training, by age, 2024
(%)
Source: Eurostat (edat_lfse_20)

Young female NEETs were more likely to be outside the labour force than young male NEETs

Table 1 shows that a higher proportion of young female NEETs aged 15–29 years in the EU were outside the labour force (not actively seeking work) compared with young male NEETs of the same age. The share of young men outside the labour force was 5.3%, compared with 8.5% among females.

This gender difference in the EU, amounting to 3.2 pp, may be attributed, in part, to family structures, as a higher proportion of young women (than young men) may spend time caring for children and/or other family members. Czechia and Romania had the largest differences between the sexes. These differences exceeded 9 pp in disadvantage to women, i.e., more women were NEETs outside the labour force than men. The only country with higher proportion of men compared to women being NEET in 2024 was Estonia.

When looking at unemployed NEETs the results are reversed: a higher proportion of men were unemployed NEETs compared with women. In the EU, the share of young male NEETs who were unemployed amounted to 4.7%, while the corresponding share for women was 3.6%. This pattern was the same in all EU countries except in Slovenia, where more women were unemployed NEETs, while the shares were about the same for women and men in Poland and Denmark.

These numbers show that women who are neither in employment nor in education and training seem to be outside of the labour force to a larger extent than men, while men are unemployed to a larger extent than women. Being unemployed suggests that the individual still has some kind of connection to the labour market while people outside the labour force do not have this connection, and having such pronounced gender differences may be a cause for concern.

Table 1: Young people (aged 15–29) neither in employment nor in education and training, by sex and activity status, 2024
Source: Eurostat (edat_lfse_20)

Does it matter where you live? A glimpse at the degree of urbanisation

Figure 8 presents information on young people (aged 15–29) who were neither in employment nor in education or training, according to their place of residence, as defined in terms of its degree of urbanisation.

In 2024, the share of young people (aged 15–29) in the EU who were NEETs was lowest in cities (10.0%) but higher in towns and suburbs (11.4%), and rural areas (12.3%).

The pattern of lowest NEET rates in cities (as compared with both rural areas and towns and suburbs) was repeated in 18 EU countries. The largest differences of the rates between cities and rural areas in terms of percentage points (pp) were recorded in Romania (19.3 pp) and in Bulgaria (17.6 pp).

Figure 8: Young people (aged 15–29) neither in employment nor in education and training, by degree of urbanisation, 2024
Source: Eurostat (edat_lfse_29)

Source data for tables and graphs

NEETs: tables and figures

Data sources

The EU labour force survey (LFS) provides statistics on individuals neither in employment nor in education or training (NEETs). The EU-LFS is documented in this background article which provides information on the scope of the data, its legal basis, the methodology employed, as well as related concepts and definitions.

Levels of education

Common definitions for education have been agreed between the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), the OECD and Eurostat.

UNESCO developed the International standard classification of education (ISCED) to enable comparisons across countries on the basis of uniform and internationally agreed definitions. It was first developed in 1976 and then revised in 1997 and 2011.

In 2011, a revision to the ISCED was formally adopted, this is known as ISCED 2011. Prior to this, ISCED 1997 was used as the common standard for classifying education systems.

Eurostat's online database presents data on educational attainment for 4 aggregates:

Less than primary, primary and lower secondary education (ISCED levels 0–2)
Upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education (ISCED levels 3 and 4)
At least upper secondary education, i.e. upper secondary, post-secondary non-tertiary and tertiary education (ISCED 2011 levels 3–8, ISCED 1997 levels 3–6)
Tertiary education (ISCED 2011 levels 5–8, ISCED 1997 levels 5 and 6)

At this level of aggregation data are comparable over time for all available countries except for Austria and Estonia (see the reference metadata Educational attainment level and transition from education to work (based on EU-LFS)). We are looking on this page at 3 levels of educational attainment – low (ISCED levels 0–2), medium (ISCED 3–4) and high (ISCED 5–8). In the online database, a breakdown by orientation general/vocational is available for ISCED levels 3 and 4.

Key concepts

Labour force

According to the EU labour force survey (LFS), there are 3 mutually exclusive types of labour status:

employed
unemployed
outside of the labour force.

Employed

Following guidelines from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the EU-LFS defines an employed person as someone who, during the reference week of the survey, performed work (even if just for 1 hour) for pay, profit or family gain. Alternatively, the person was not at work, but had a job or business from which they were temporarily absent (less than 3 months) due to illness, holiday, industrial dispute, education/training.

Unemployed

This is someone who was without work during the reference week of the LFS; was available to start work within the next 2 weeks (or had already found a job to start within the next 3 months); and who actively was seeking employment during the 4 weeks preceding the EU-LFS.

Outside the labour force

This is someone who is not considered to be part of the labour force: they do not have a job and they are not actively seeking employment. Examples include children, students and pensioners.

For more information on the main concepts in the EU-LFS, see EU labour force survey.

NEETs

Statistics for employment and unemployment have traditionally been used to describe labour markets, in other words, providing data on people who have a job and those who are actively looking for one.

However, labour market participation by younger people is somewhat different, especially when:

a large proportion of young people are still attending school, college, university, other higher education establishments or training, and;
another group of young people are neither in employment (unemployed or outside the labour force), nor in education or training (NEETs).

The share of young people neither in employment nor in education or training is an indicator measuring the proportion of a given subpopulation who are not employed and not involved in any further education or training; these people may be subdivided into those who are unemployed and those who are considered outside the labour force (in other words, they do not have a job and they are not actively seeking employment).

The definition of the group is as follows:

The numerator of the indicator refers to people meeting 2 conditions:

they are not employed — in other words, they are unemployed or outside the labour force.
they have not received any (formal or non-formal) education or training in the 4 weeks preceding the LFS.

The denominator is the total population of the same age group, excluding non-response to the question about 'participation in regular (formal) education and training' in the LFS.

Tables on this page use the following notation: ':' not available, confidential or unreliable value.

Context

Within the EU the labour markets in member countries are increasingly described as being insecure, with a higher proportion of the workforce on temporary, part-time or casual (so-called zero-hours) contracts.

Many of the workers that have this kind of contract are often relatively young. It might be the first job for an individual who strives to move from education or training into the labour market. These individuals are often particularly vulnerable when the business cycle is turning, as they may be the first to leave the workplace (last in first out) since they are competing with other job-seekers who have more experience.

The still quite high share of young people who are neither in employment nor in education or training in the EU may mean that employers recruiting in EU labour markets have a wide choice of potential candidates, although it may reflect labour market mismatches, for example geographically or in terms of skills.

Some employers criticise the lack of basic skills that some young people have when they leave the education system, as well as their under-developed life skills (communication and presentational skills, ability to work in a team, problem-solving skills), or their lack of work experience and knowledge in relation to their chosen profession.

With a surplus of labour, employers may prefer to recruit young people who have completed a tertiary level of education or an apprenticeship (see more on employment rates of recent graduates). As such, young people with few or no qualifications may struggle to enter the labour market and may be excluded from work or increasingly find themselves stuck in a cycle of low paid jobs with little opportunity for progression.

This was particularly the case during the financial and economic crisis in the late 2000s, when tertiary graduates also faced difficulties in finding a job, and may have taken jobs for which they were over-qualified simply to get into the labour market. Similar behaviour might have been triggered by the economic downturn related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The level of education that a young person achieves therefore has a strong influence on their chances of finding and remaining in work. For more information see employment rates of recent graduates.

A relatively high proportion of young people in the EU are neither in employment nor in education or training, and policymakers are increasingly concerned by the economic and social consequences of their disengagement.

Among the wide range of factors that may contribute are

having a low or medium level of educational attainment
living in a household with a low level of income
coming from a family where a parent experienced unemployment
being raised by a single parent
living in a rural area
having been born in a country outside the EU
having a disability

Young people who spend a considerable period of time as NEETs are often affected by a range of social conditions, such as poverty and social exclusion, insecurity, crime and health problems.

The European Pillar of Social Rights sets out 20 key principles and rights essential for fair and well-functioning labour markets and welfare systems.

Principle 4 ('Active support to employment') states that 'young people have the right to continued education, apprenticeship, traineeship or a job offer of good standing within 4 months of becoming unemployed or leaving education'.

An overall commitment to an inclusive high employment rate is made by setting an EU-level target: the overall goal is that at least 78% of the population in the EU aged 20–64 years should be in employment by 2030. To reach this goal, our target is to improve employment prospects for people aged 15—29 and so reduce the share of this cohort who are not involved in employment, education or training to 9%.

In 2020, all EU countries committed to implementing the improved Youth guarantee in a Council Recommendation which steps up the comprehensive job support available to young people across the EU and makes it more targeted and inclusive, also when it comes to the challenges caused by the pandemic.

Although policymakers have sought to address particular groups of young people such as the unemployed, early school leavers and those with insufficient qualifications for labour market needs, there remain a high number of young people in the EU who are either not employed or not in education/training.

Explore further

Database

Education and training (educ), see:

Education and training outcomes (educ_outc)

Transition from education to work (edatt)

Young people by educational and labour status (incl. neither in employment nor in education and training – NEET) (edatt0)

Thematic section

Education and training

Methodology

Metadata

Educational attainment level and transition from education to work (reference metadata — edat1_esms)

Manuals and other methodological information

Further methodological information on NEETs

Legislation

EU labour force survey – main features and legal basis

External links

Selected datasets

Education and training (t_educ), see:

Education and training outcomes (t_educ_outc)