Romania has highest rate of early school leavers in the European Union

Romania registers the highest share of 'early school leavers' (young people aged 18-24 leaving early from education and training) among the EU member states, at 16.6% compared to a European average of 9.5%.

At the EU level, the share of young people who decided to leave education and vocational training early has decreased constantly in the last 10 years (from 11.8% in 2013 to 9.5%), which brings member countries closer to achieving the goal of reaching below 9% by 2030, according to Eurostat data.

Already, 16 member countries have reached the target for 2030, the best situation being in Croatia (2%), Poland and Greece (3.7% each), and Ireland (4%).

At the opposite pole are Romania (16.6%), Spain (13.7%), Germany (12.8%), and Hungary (11.6%), where the percentage of young people who give up education after the age of 18 is the highest picked up.

Romania is also the EU state with the lowest share of the 25-34-year-old population with university education, of only 23%, according to Eurostat data for 2023.

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