Which EU countries have the highest education dropout rates and why?

A new EU-wide report shows that poor upfront choices are the main reason behind dropouts from education.

Eurostat data shows that the vast majority (43%) occur when students realise the course is too difficult or does not meet their expectations, a figure that rises to 50% in post-secondary school studies.

Overall, 14% of EU citizens aged 15 to 34 have quit school, university or training at least once in their lifetime.

Dropout rates vary widely across the bloc. The Netherlands tops the ranking, with around one in three (32%) students who have left education early. Denmark follows at 27%, while Luxembourg is in third place at 25%.

Low dropout, high exclusion: When money forces students out

Interestingly, finances are rarely brought up as the main reason for dropping out.

Less than one in 10 say they left because they couldn’t afford to continue.

Yet, behind this data, there’s a striking paradox: several countries with the lowest dropout rates also report the highest shares of students forced out by financial constraints.

In Romania — which has the lowest dropout rate in the EU — 22% of those who quit say they did so because they didn’t have enough resources to continue.

Romania is also the EU country with the second-lowest share of GDP spending on education.

Neighbouring Bulgaria shows a similar pattern: while only 3.5% of students drop out overall, 30% of them cite affordability issues, the highest such rate in the EU.

Cyprus’s data tells the same story. Although it has the fourth-lowest dropout rate across the bloc, it ranks third in the share of students who leave education for financial reasons.

Many also left due to personal reasons (18.5%), or because they wanted to work instead (14%), while 8% had to drop out due to illness or disability.

Silent killer: Mental health’s impact on student retention

Although mental health specifically isn’t accounted for by Eurostat, it might be the reason behind some of the figures.

A UK study found that psychological strain was behind 29% of dropout cases in 2024, by far the most cited reason.

“We know there has been a clear rise recently in mental ill health, in loneliness and in a sense of a lack of belonging,” said the Higher Education Policy Institute in the report.

In particular, the organisation said that post-pandemic student mental health has been “significantly affecting levels of resilience and coping strategies in personal, professional, academic and societal aspects of daily life, thus impacting on higher education institution student retention.”

At 8%, lack of affordability was the second most cited reason by British higher education students.