Young people outside the education system

The proportion of young people outside the education system (without having obtained an upper secondary level diploma) provides information on the educational pathways of students within the education system. It can be seen as an indicator of the effectiveness of this system in keeping and training young people to a minimum level of education necessary to their personal and professional fulfilment and its ability to foster in them a certain culture of learning (learning to learn). Leaving the education system before obtaining such a diploma reduces young people’s chances of long-term labour market participation, involving a series of problems (unemployment, risk of poverty, etc.) that have a negative effect on the integration process.

Note: On the German and French version of this page, the tables have been updated with the latest data. Graphs and texts will be updated shortly.

In 2020, nearly 12% of young people aged 18 to 24 who belong to the first generation and 5% of people from the second generation were not in formal education even though they did not yet have an upper secondary qualification. These rates are significantly higher than the one among young people of the same age with no migration background whose rate is 3%.

The share of young people outside the education system among the population with no migration background and among the second or subsequent generations has remained constant between 2011 and 2020. The share of the first generation decreased by 6.9 percentage points between 2011 and 2020.