Italia second in Europe for young Neet: analysis of the phenomenon and territorial gaps in 2024

For the experts, it is not only a problem affecting girls and boys but an entire youth population that is excluded from education, training and employment. A social problem.

A reading of the data shows that the highest percentage is in the south of Italy and in cities such as Catania, Palermo and Naples.

"The educational gaps present in the country can affect the future condition of Neet from two, often overlapping points of view," the elaboration points out. Firstly, a low level of education, or in any case the attainment of a qualification that does not correspond to actual skills (the so-called implicit dispersion), often means not finding outlets either within the education system, for example with access to tertiary education, or in the employment system'.

In many cases even a high school diploma is not enough to contain the Neet risk. "While at European level the share of n

Neet among high school graduates (11.3%) is in line with the general average (around 11%) - it emerges again -, in Italia among young people with a diploma the percentage of those not studying and not working is close to 18%'. Almost 3 points higher than the national average (15.2%). Among university graduates in Italia, it drops instead to 11.8 per cent. Reading the data, an almost paradoxical situation emerges: the incidence of Neet is higher among young graduates than among those with at most a secondary school diploma (13.3%).

Compared to the national average of 15.2%, the highest incidence is in the most densely populated cities and urban areas where it exceeds 16%. While it is lower than 15% in both intermediate (14.7%) and rural (14.4%) municipalities.

"The educational difficulties find a further reflection in the condition of Neet, the young people between 15 and 29 years old who do not study and do not work. Also in this case, the territorial gap is evident: Catania (35.4%), Palermo (32.4%) and Naples (29.7%) record the highest values, against lower percentages in the cities of the centre-north, such as Venice (19.7%), Florence and Genoa (17.7%) and Bologna (17.3%)".

For Federico Conte, former president of the order of psychologists of Lazio and now national president of Enpap, this is a phenomenon that must be analysed as a whole and contextualised to the territories. "One of the sore points, according to the expert, is the lack of bridges between the labour market and school'. 'One of the sore points, according to the expert, is the link between school, training, work,' he says, 'on the individual it generates a sense of distrust in the State, with repercussions also in the social sphere'. The final risk, where there are fewer possibilities and opportunities, is that there is 'a habit of feeling invisible'. Precisely on this aspect, according to the expert, it is necessary to work to reverse the course.

A somewhat similar scenario can be observed in Spain, where the phenomenon of Neet - known as ninis - has a structural character, although showing a gradually decreasing trend after the peak reached following the 2008 financial crisis and during the pandemic. According to Eurostat, Spain continues to rank above the European average for the share of young people aged between 15 and 29 who are neither studying nor working.

The term ni-ni identifies young people between the ages of 16 and 29 who are excluded from both the education system and the labour market. A condition that took on critical dimensions in the hardest years of the employment crisis: between 2012 and 2015, the unemployment rate for young people under 25 exceeded 50 per cent. After peaking in the first quarter of 2013, the figure started to decline, but remains high: in the first quarter of 2025, the youth unemployment rate stood at 25.4%.

In 2024 Spain was among the OECD and EU countries with the highest percentage of Neet, as highlighted by the OECD's Education at a Glance 2024 report. Almost 18% of 18-24 year olds are neither studying nor working, compared to an average of 13.7% in OECD countries and 12.9% in the EU. During the pandemic, the number of Neets increased by 16%, twice the EU average.

A central role in the production of ninis is played by early school leaving and educational inequalities. Although the drop-out rate has decreased in the last decade, Spain remains among the countries with the highest values in the European Union, with strong territorial differences. According to the National Institute of Statistics, in 2023 the highest rates were in Ceuta and Melilla (over 20 per cent), followed by Murcia (19.2 per cent) and Andalusia (16.9 per cent). Not surprisingly, in some regions the number of Neets also increased in 2023, despite the improvement in employment.

The main risk factors include early entry into the labour market without adequate qualifications, often in unstable sectors such as tourism and construction, which expose young people to fragmented and vulnerable employment paths. Urban peripheries and metropolitan areas are particularly affected, due to the concentration of unemployment, precariousness and weaker educational offerings. Also for this reason, according to experts, it remains crucial to strengthen the link between education and work: a need to which some regions, such as Andalusia, are responding with targeted job placement programmes for young people enrolled in the Youth Guarantee system.

*This article is part of the European collaborative journalism project "Pulse"