The youth (people aged 15–29 years) unemployment rate in the EU fell to 13.0% in 2021, from 13.3% in 2020. The COVID-19 crisis and its associated measures disproportionately impacted young people in terms of unemployment, especially in 2020, when the youth unemployment rate rose 1.4 percentage points (pp) while the overall unemployment rate increased by 0.4 pp, but then youth unemployment decreased slightly more in 2021 (-0.3 pp compared with 2020) than the overall unemployment rate (-0.1 pp, from 7.1% in 2020 to 7.0% in 2021).
Excluding regions for which the data refer to 2019 (e.g. most regions of Germany), the lowest youth unemployment rates in 2021 were recorded in eastern regions of the EU: 4 regions in Czechia – including Jihozápad which had the lowest rate among NUTS level 2 regions at 3.7% – 3 regions in Hungary (including the capital region of Budapest (4.8%)), and Wielkopolskie (4.0%) in Poland.
High youth unemployment rates were concentrated in southern Europe. There were 23 regions where 30.0% or more of the labour force aged 15–29 years was unemployed. At the top end of the range, there were 6, largely peripheral or remote regions, where the youth unemployment rate was higher than 40%: Ciudade Autónoma de Ceuta (56.0%) and Ciudade Autónoma de Melilla (41.9%) (both in Spain), Anatoliki Makedonia, Thraki (45.1%) and Dytiki Makedonia (42.3%) (all in Greece), Mayotte (43.0%) in France and Sicilia (40.1%) in Italy.
Source dataset: lfst_r_lfu3rt
Youth unemployment rate almost twice as high as the overall rate
The EU’s youth unemployment rate (13.0%) was almost twice as high as the overall unemployment rate (7.0%) in 2021 and higher than the overall unemployment rate (for people aged 15–74 years) in each of the 192 NUTS level 2 regions for which data are available.
In close to half (46.4%) of these 192 regions, the youth unemployment rate was at least twice as high as the overall unemployment rate. The highest ratio between these two rates was recorded in Vest in Romania, where the youth unemployment rate was 3.5 times as high as the overall unemployment rate, while relatively high ratios (2.8 or 2.9 times as high) were recorded in Basilicata and Molise in southern Italy and Prov. Vlaams-Brabant in Belgium.
Source dataset: lfst_r_lfu3rt
Regarding the overall unemployment rate across NUTS level 2 regions, in 2021, the highest unemployment rates were recorded in southern and outermost regions of the EU: regional unemployment rates of at least 14.5 % were recorded in 9 of the 13 regions from Greece (the exceptions being the capital region of Attiki, Peloponnisos, Ionia Nisia and Voreio Aigaio), 8 regions from Spain, 4 of the outermost regions of France, and 4 regions from the southern half of Italy.
The lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Střední Morava and Praha in Czechia; Közép-Dunántúl and Nyugat-Dunántúl in Hungary; Warszawski stołeczny, Wielkopolskie and Pomorskie in Poland, all with an unemployment rate within the range of 2.1–2.3%.
How does youth unemployment in your region compare to the EU average? You can read more in the dedicated chapter of the Eurostat regional yearbook - 2022 edition. The newly updated Regions in Europe – 2022 interactive edition features dynamic visualisations covering many themes, including the labour market. We also recommend the Statistical Atlas – an easy to use interactive tool providing data in map form.
For more information:
- Dedicated section on regions and cities
- Statistics Explained article on unemployment statistics at regional level
- Dedicated section on labour market
- Database on regional statistics
- Eurostat regional yearbook - 2022 edition, also available as a set of Statistics Explained articles, containing the underlying data
- Regions in Europe - 2022 interactive edition
- Statistical atlas visualisation tool
Methodological notes:
- Montenegro, North Macedonia and Turkey: 2020 data
- Mayotte: 2020 data
- Germany, France, Poland and Portugal: some data for earlier reference years (too many to document)
- Regions defined according to the NUTS classification
- The youth unemployment rate is based on the same principles as the definition for the overall unemployment rate, in that it is calculated as a share of the labour force. As such, when the youth unemployment rate is 13.0%, this does not mean that 13.0% of all youths are unemployed. Rather, 13.0% of youths who are in the labour force are unemployed (and the remaining 87.0% are employed), while youths outside the labour force (for example because exclusively focusing on studying) are neither in the numerator nor the denominator used to calculate this ratio.
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