Romania continues to rank first in the EU in terms of the proportion of NEETs

Romania continues to have the highest proportion in the European Union of young people aged 15 to 29 who are not in employment, education, or training (NEETs): 19.4% of the total population in that age group in 2024.

One in five young people in Romania is neither employed nor in education.

For the European Union as a whole, the average NEET rate is 11.1%. Romania's gap with other EU countries is growing: the next country in the undesirable ranking of NEET rates is Italy (15.2%), followed by Lithuania (14.7%) and Greece (14.2%). At the opposite end of the spectrum is the Netherlands, with 4.9% of young people classified as NEETs, followed by Sweden (6.3%) and Malta (7.2%).

By gender, the percentage of young women in Romania who are neither in education nor in employment is much higher than that of young men: a quarter (25.2%) of young women aged 15 to 29 are not in education or employment, while among young men the percentage is 14%. The gender gap in Romania, at 11.2 percentage points, is the largest in the European Union.

At the same time, there is an increase in the gaps between rural and urban areas. Against the backdrop of relative stability in the proportion of NEETs in the total population aged 15–29, there has been an increase in rural areas, especially after 2020 (from 21.2% to 26.8%), as well as in small and medium-sized towns (from 18.3% to 21.7%). This increase occurred mainly during the COVID-19 pandemic. A significant improvement in the situation was recorded only in large cities, where the proportion of NEETs halved between 2013 and 2024 (from 13.8% to 7.5%).

By region, the proportion of young NEETs decreased in only a few regions (Bucharest-Ilfov, Center, Southeast). In Muntenia, it increased from 25.2% in 2013 to 29.9% in 2024. Thus, the difference between the region with the most and the region with the fewest NEETs doubled between 2013 and 2024 (from 11.9 percentage points to 20.4 percentage points). In other words, the overall decline in the proportion of young people not in employment, education, or training masks the widening of regional disparities.

The highest proportion of young people who are not in employment, education, or training is among those who have only completed primary education. The share of NEETs is growing alarmingly among this group, from 21% in 2013 to 34% in 2024. Almost half (44%) of young women with primary education fall into the NEET category.

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Data source: 

• Eurostat, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/edat_lfse_21__custom_19230870/default/table 
• Eurostat, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/edat_lfse_29__custom_19364290/default/table 
• Eurstat, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/edat_lfse_22__custom_19228691/default/table 

Data processing and text design: Mircea Kivu

Infographic: Pascalone Media SRL

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