00:00Where in the EU do young people drop out of school the earliest?
00:07In 2025, 9.1% of young people aged between 18 and 24 in the EU dropped out of school
00:15without completing at least upper secondary education and did not pursue further education
00:20or training. More young men than women tend to leave education and training early. However,
00:26there has been a downward trend in the number of those dropping out. In the past 10 years,
00:32the share of young men decreased from 12.5% in 2015 to 10.6% in 2025, while the
00:39share of young
00:40women fell from 9.4% to 7.5%. The EU has set a target to reduce the rate of
00:47early school leavers
00:48to less than 9% by 2030, and 17 EU countries have already met this target. The lowest shares
00:56of early leavers from education and training were recorded in Croatia, Greece and Ireland.
01:02In contrast, the EU countries that reported the highest shares of early leavers in 2025
01:07were Romania, Germany and Spain. Early leavers from education and training may face challenges
01:13when trying to enter the labour market. Last year, 46.2% of early leavers were employed,
01:20while 30.8% were not employed but wanted to work, and the remaining 23.1% were neither employed
01:28nor looking for work.
Comments