Romania tops list of EU countries with highest proportion of young people out of work or education

Romania has the highest proportion of young people aged 15-29 who are neither employed nor enrolled in school, university, or another form of education, nor involved in any form of training, the so-called Neither in Employment nor in Education or Training, or NEETs, in the European Union, according to Eurostat.

More exactly, 19.2% of young people in Romania were in a NEET situation in 2025. The figure is slightly lower than in 2024, when roughly 19.4% of young people were in this situation.

The countries with the highest percentages of young people in this situation were Romania, Bulgaria (13.8%), and Greece (13.6%).

By comparison, the EU average was 11%. The countries with the lowest percentage of NEETs were the Netherlands (5.3%), Sweden (5.9%), and Slovenia (7.6%).

"It is important to ensure that the transition from education to working life is a smooth one for young people and, at the same time, to highlight the risks associated with this situation. There are risks, both for the individual and, in the long term, for society, if young people become disconnected from both education and the labor market,"Eurostat noted in its analysis.

The EU has set a target for member states to reduce the share of young people in NEET status to 9% by 2030.

According to an Edupedu.ro analysis, Romania saw a considerable decline in the NEET rate until 2020, to 16.6%, but the rate rose sharply in 2021, and since then its annual decrease has been insignificant.

(Photo source: Eurostat on Facebook)