The overall share of early leavers from education and training fell in the EU by 2.3 percentage points (pp) between 2013 and 2023.
The EU set an EU-level target stipulating that the share of early leavers from education and training should be less than 9 % by 2030.
Already, 16 member states have reached the target for 2030, with the best situation registered in Croatia (2%), Poland and Greece (3.7% each) and Ireland (4%).
At the opposite end are Romania (16.6%), Spain (13.7%), Germany (12.8%) and Hungary (11.6%).
As regards university degrees, the European average stood at 43% last year among young people aged 25-34, close to the target for 2030, of 45%.
The proportion of early leavers from education and training was 3.6 pp higher for young men (11.3 %) than for young women (7.7 %) in the EU in 2023. Nearly all EU countries reported a higher proportion of early leavers for young men than for young women, with particularly large differences in Italy (5.5 pp), Germany (4.8 pp), Spain (4.7 pp), Finland (4.6 pp), Latvia and Malta (both 4.5 pp). In contrast, the share of early leavers was about the same for young women and young men in Romania, Czechia, Greece and Bulgaria (+/- 0.2 pp).
Between 2013 and 2023, the majority of EU countries reported a fall in the proportion of early leavers among young men. The largest decrease in early leavers among young men was in Portugal (-13.6 pp), followed by Spain with a reduction of more than 10.0 pp compared to 2013. Conversely, four countries reported increases that exceeded 1.0 pp: Austria, Finland, Denmark and Germany.
Among young women, a broadly similar situation was observed. Spain recorded the largest fall in the proportion of early school leavers, down
8.5 pp between 2013 and 2023 for young women, followed by Portugal (8.2 pp). However, six EU countries reported more than a 1.0 pp higher proportion of young women who were early leavers in 2023 than in 2013: Germany (1.1 pp), Lithuania (1.4 pp), Estonia (2.2 pp), Slovenia (2.3 pp), Denmark (2.5 pp) and Cyprus (5.8 pp).
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)