Lifelong Learning Programme

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Select language

This section of the OFF-Book portal provides administrative information for the project contractual partners and for the European Commission and it is password protected.

Teachers’ Guidelines

Homepage > Teachers’ Guidelines > Understanding Early School Leaving

An overview of the current situation of early school leaving in Europe

Understanding Early School Leaving

Table of Content

2. Statistical Data and a Comparative Analysis
As far as it was aforementioned, the Europe 2020 strategy has set the goal of reducing the proportion of 18- to 24-year-olds leaving education and training early to below 10% (European semester thematic fact sheet. Early school leavers). According to statistical data in 2011 more than 6 million young people in the EU leave education and training with lower secondary level qualifications at best. In 2016 there were still more than 4 million early school leavers across Europe, around 45% of them are employed (European semester thematic fact sheet. Early school leavers).

Among the EU Member States, the proportion of early leavers in 2016 ranged from 2.8 % in Croatia (note that data have low reliability) to 19.6 % in Malta (European semester thematic fact sheet. Early school leavers). Also among the EU Member States, the largest reductions (in percentage point terms) between 2011 and 2016 in the proportion of early leavers were in Portugal, Spain and Greece; this was also the case for Turkey and Norway among the non-member countries. There was an increase between 2011 and 2016 in the proportion of early leavers in eight of the Member States. The biggest increases were recorded in Slovakia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Hungary, with less increases - Sweden, Slovenia, Romania and Estonia (Source: Eurostat (LFS, table [t2020_40]).).

Compared with 2006, the proportion of early leavers from education and training decreased in 2016 in all Member States for which the time-series is available, except in the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia. In 2016, the lowest proportions of early leavers from education and training were observed in Croatia (2.8%), Lithuania (4.8%), Slovenia (4.9%), Poland (5.2%) and Luxembourg (5.5%), while the highest shares were recorded in Malta (19.6%), Spain (19.0%) and Romania (18.5%). Fifteen Member States have already met their 2020 national target for this indicator: Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Greece, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Slovenia and Finland (Source: Eurostat (LFS, table [t2020_40]).

The share of early leavers from education and training (aged 18-24) – colloquially referred to as early school leavers – has steadily decreased in the European Union (EU) over the past years, from 17.0% in 2002 to 10.7% in 2016. Fewer young women (9.2% in 2016) leave education and training early than young men (12.2%) (Source: Eurostat (LFS, table [t2020_40]).

While over 70% of early school leavers in the EU complete lower secondary education, around 17% have completed only primary education. The latter group is especially large in Bulgaria (38%) and Portugal (40%) ((Source: Eurostat (LFS, table [t2020_40]).

Furthermore, as stated in Eurydice Brief: Tackling early leaving from education and training (2017), in the majority of European countries the rate of early leavers has decreased over the recent years; and with a current EU-Average of 12 %, countries are collectively heading towards the 10 % benchmark goal by 2020 if the current trend continues. More than half of the countries examined have reached the EU headline target, and around a third of all countries have reached their own national targets, often set at a more ambitious level than the headline target.

In the last few years early school leaving varies from 3 to 20% of all young people in a single country. Within the European Union, it affects more than four million young people between the ages of 18 and 24 who have not attained an upper secondary level education qualification and who are not receiving any formal education or training (EU definition) (Erna Nairz-Wirth, 2015).

The average of all young people early leaving school average is 10,1 % in 2015 and 9,8 % in 2016. As far as gender is concerned, recent statistics from Eurostat (EU-LFS, 2017) show that in 2016 there was a higher proportion of boys (10,4 %) amongst early leavers from general education than girls (7,7 %). In comparison with the earliest years the numbers are somehow smaller, but the problem remains important.
Online Resources

Table of Content

Follow us

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.