Euro area: Share of youth not in education, employment or training, male (% of male youth population)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2025, Euro area's share of youth not in education, employment or training, male (% of male youth population) fell 0.76 percentage points on 2024 (from 10.26% to 9.5%).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1990 to 2024), the average change was −0.1 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 0.91 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.7 standard deviations below that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 2.31 percentage points in 2009 and the biggest yearly fall was 2.1 percentage points in 1999. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2016 to 2025 the straight-line trend is downward, about 0.27 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 74% of the movement over 10 observed years.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

A straight-line projection, tested first

Extending that straight line gives about 8.74% for 2028. We show this only because the same method, fitted on earlier years, predicted 2023 to 2025 better than "no change" would have: its average miss was 0.17%, against 0.26% for assuming no change. Treat it as a continuation of the recent pattern, not a forecast of events: it cannot see a recession, a policy change or a revision to the data.

See how a linear trend forecast works and the guide on forecasting without fooling yourself.

What this measures

The share of youth not in education, employment or training (also known as “the NEET rate”) conveys the number of young persons not in education, employment or training as a percentage of the total youth population. Youth not in education are those who were neither enrolled in school nor in a formal training program (e.g. vocational training). For the purposes of this indicator, youth is defined as all persons between the ages of 15 and 24 (inclusive).

Limitations: When differing from international standards, the operational criteria used to define employment and the participation in education or training will naturally affect the comparability of the resulting statistics, as will the coverage of the source of statistics (geographical coverage, population coverage, age coverage, etc.). NEET rates are calculated preferably for youth defined as persons aged 15 to 24, but when studying these rates it is important to keep in mind that not all persons complete their education by the age of 24.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a weighted average.

All 38 values

Share of youth not in education, employment or training, male (% of male youth population) in nearby economies

• Egypt, Arab Rep. — 14.76% (2024)
• Iran, Islamic Rep. — 15.42% (2024)
• Israel — 14.83% (2024)
• Malta — 8.05% (2025)
• Pakistan — 13.13% (2025)
• West Bank and Gaza — 24.82% (2025)

More social protection & labor data for Euro area

• Net migration — 102,179 (2025)
• Refugees under the mandate of the UNHCR by country or territory of asylum — 5.83 million (2025)
• Refugees under the mandate of the UNHCR by country or territory of origin — 20,326 (2025)
• Employment to population ratio, ages 15-24, female (%) (national estimate) — 33.57% (2025)
• Employment to population ratio, ages 15-24, male (%) (national estimate) — 37.54% (2025)
• Employment to population ratio, ages 15-24, total (%) (national estimate) — 35.61% (2025)
• Employment to population ratio, 15+, female (%) (national estimate) — 49.44% (2025)
• Employment to population ratio, 15+, male (%) (national estimate)

Reading data like this

• Where to find free public data, and how to check it before you trust it — 2 min read
• Data analysis examples: 6 worked from one dataset — 3 min read
• Real change or random noise? A plain guide to reading your numbers — 2 min read

Questions people ask

What is Euro area's share of youth not in education, employment or training, male (% of male youth population)?

9.5% in 2025, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1983?

It is up 0.15 percentage points from 9.35% in 1983. The highest value was 13.9% in 2013 and the lowest 9.3% in 1990.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator SL.UEM.NEET.MA.ZS, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Labour Force Statistics database (LFS), International Labour Organization (ILO), uri: https://ilostat.ilo.org/data/bulk/, publisher: ILOSTAT, type: external database, date accessed: September 28, 2026 Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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