Early school leavers down to 10% in 2022

The share of “early school leavers” (young people aged 18-24 leaving early from education and training) has steadily decreased in the EU over the last 10 years, from 13% in 2012 to 10% in 2022. But still, there is some way to go to reach the target of reducing the rates of early school leavers at the EU level to below 9% by 2030.

Data show that more young men left education and training early than women in 2022, 11% of men vs 8% of women.  The share of men decreased from almost 15% in 2012 to 11% in 2022. Regarding young women, the share fell from almost 11% in 2012 to 8% in 2022.  

Compared with 2012, two-thirds of all EU members reported a smaller share of early leavers in 2022, except for Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Austria, Slovakia and Sweden, which reported small increases (the highest being around +2 pp).

Source dataset: edat_lfse_14

Lowest share of early school leavers in Croatia; highest in Romania and Spain

In 2022, the EU members that reported the lowest shares of early leavers from education and training were Croatia (2%), Ireland, Slovenia and Greece (each 4%), Poland and Lithuania (each 5%).

In contrast, the highest shares were recorded in Romania (16%), Spain (14%), Hungary, Germany and Italy (each 12%).

Eighteen EU members have already met the EU-level target for 2030 for this indicator: Belgium, Czechia, Ireland, Greece, France, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden. 

Source dataset: edat_lfse_14

In 2022, the share of early leavers from education and training was lower for young women than for young men across all EU members apart from Bulgaria (men 9%, women 12%) and Greece (men 4%, women 5%).