Education: Where in the EU has the most early school dropouts?

In 2025, 9.1% of young people aged between 18 and 24 in the EU dropped out of school and did not pursue further education or training, according to the latest Eurostat figures.

Across EU countries, the proportion of early leavers in 2025 ranged from 2.1% in Croatia to 15.5% in Romania.

More young men than women tend to leave education and training early.

However, there has been a downward trend in the number of those dropping out, for both sexes.

In the past 10 years, the share of young men decreased from 12.5% in 2015 to 10.6% in 2025, while the share of young women fell from 9.4% to 7.5%.

The EU has set a target to reduce the rate of early school leavers to less than 9% by 2030, and 17 EU countries have already met this target.

The lowest shares of early leavers from education and training were recorded in Croatia, Greece, and Ireland.

In contrast, the EU countries that reported the highest shares of early leavers in 2025 were Romania, Germany, and Spain.

Does where people live affect their willingness to pursue education?

Living in cities, the suburbs, or rural areas can dictate the proportion of people who drop out of education and training earlier.

In 2025, the lowest proportion of early leavers in the EU was reported in cities, at 8%.

Meanwhile, in the suburbs of the EU, the proportion of early leavers amounted to 10.1% and in rural areas to 9.6%.

Romania, Bulgaria, and Denmark registered the highest shares of youngsters between 18 and 24 living in rural areas and who decided to stop studying after completing at most lower secondary education.

Young Romanians, Spanish, and Germans are also among those who dropped out earlier and live in towns or in the suburbs.

Do early leavers struggle to find a job?

Early leavers from education and training may face challenges when trying to enter the labour market.

Last year, 46.2% of all early leavers were employed, while 30.8% were not employed but wanted to work, and the remaining 23.1% were neither employed nor looking for work.

In 2025, only the Netherlands, Malta, Sweden, Cyprus, Portugal, Spain, Denmark, Germany and Latvia reported that 50% or more early leavers were employed.

In the majority of countries, early leavers were predominantly not in employment, with the highest shares of unemployed early leavers found in Lithuania (86.4%), Slovakia (77.9%), Bulgaria (76.7%) and Croatia (76.2%).

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