South Asia: Share of youth not in education, employment or training, female (% of female youth population)

Key figures

Over five years it is down 5.7 percentage points from 45.42% in 2020. Since 1994 it is down 19.07 percentage points from 58.79% in 1994. The World Bank has no value for 18 of the years in between; the chart leaves those gaps open rather than joining across them.

What the numbers say

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 6 percentage points in 2005 and the biggest yearly fall was 4.43 percentage points in 2022. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2018 to 2025 the straight-line trend is downward, about 1.72 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 77% of the movement over 8 observed years.

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

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 14 values

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

• Egypt, Arab Rep. — 34.76% (2024)
• Iran, Islamic Rep. — 34.07% (2024)
• Israel — 15.69% (2024)
• Malta — 8.71% (2025)
• Pakistan — 45.42% (2025)
• West Bank and Gaza — 26.78% (2025)

More social protection & labor data for South Asia

• Net migration — -1.3 million (2025)
• Refugees under the mandate of the UNHCR by country or territory of asylum — 1.44 million (2025)
• Refugees under the mandate of the UNHCR by country or territory of origin — 238,179 (2025)
• Labor force participation rate for ages 15-24, female (%) (modeled ILO estimate) — 19.57% (2025)
• Labor force participation rate for ages 15-24, male (%) (modeled ILO estimate) — 45.37% (2025)
• Labor force participation rate for ages 15-24, total (%) (modeled ILO estimate) — 32.97% (2025)
• Labor force participation rate, female (% of female population ages 15-64) (modeled ILO estimate) — 35.5% (2025)

Reading data like this

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Questions people ask

What is South Asia's share of youth not in education, employment or training, female (% of female youth population)?

39.72% in 2025, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1994?

It is down 19.07 percentage points from 58.79% in 1994. The highest value was 58.79% in 1994 and the lowest 35.59% in 2023.

Where does this data come from?

The World Bank's World Development Indicators, 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.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator SL.UEM.NEET.FE.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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