Countries by Youth Unemployment (%)
Complete ranking of 37 countries • Percentage of population aged 15-24 years • Updated 2026
About Youth Not In Employment, Education Or Training Rankings
Turkey leads all 37 countries in Youth Not In Employment, Education Or Training with a value of 23.219, while Netherlands ranks last at 4.14. This represents a 6-fold difference between the highest and lowest values.
What Youth Not In Employment, Education Or Training Measures
Youth Not In Employment, Education Or Training is a comparative indicator tracked across countries by the OECD. It provides a quantitative basis for cross-national comparison, enabling researchers and policymakers to benchmark national performance on this dimension against global peers.
Why This Ranking Matters
Examining Youth Not In Employment, Education Or Training across all countries reveals patterns that might not be obvious at the national level. Regional clusters, outlier nations, and historical trajectories all become clearer when the full global picture is assembled in a single ranking.
Global Range
Values range from 4.14 (Netherlands) to 23.219 (Turkey) — a 6-fold difference across 37 countries.
Regional Patterns
European countries dominate this ranking, holding 13 of the top 20 positions. This strong regional concentration suggests shared economic, geographic, or policy factors that drive higher values across the continent.
Values are broadly distributed across countries, with the middle 50% ranging from 8.04 to 12.921. The overall spread from 4.14 to 23.219 reflects significant global variation.
Notable Outliers
The top of the ranking is competitive: Turkey and Colombia are separated by only 0%, indicating that the leading positions could shift with updated data.
Continental Leaders
Highest Ranked
The top five countries for Youth Not In Employment, Education Or Training are Turkey (23.219), Colombia (23.152), Costa Rica (20.74), Mexico (15.878), and Israel (15.068). Together, these nations represent the global leaders in this metric.
Lowest Ranked
At the other end of the spectrum, Netherlands (4.14), Czechia (4.46), Norway (4.64), Iceland (4.68), and Japan (5.99) have the lowest values globally.
Data Source & Methodology
Rankings are based on the latest available data from OECD, covering 37 of 249 countries and territories. Countries without data for this metric are excluded from the ranking. All values represent the most recently reported figures.
Top 10 Countries
Full Rankings
| Percentile | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st |  Turkey | 23.2% | Europe | 100% |
| 2nd |  Colombia | 23.2% | North America | 97% |
| 3rd |  Costa Rica | 20.7% | North America | 95% |
| 4th |  Mexico | 15.9% | North America | 92% |
| 5th |  Israel | 15.1% | Asia | 89% |
| 6th |  Lithuania | 14.9% | Europe | 86% |
| 7th |  Chile | 14.9% | South America | 84% |
| 8th |  United Kingdom | 13.7% | Europe | 81% |
| 9th |  Spain | 13.4% | Europe | 78% |
| 10th |  Italy | 12.9% | Europe | 76% |
| 11th |  France | 12.5% | Europe | 73% |
| 12th |  Greece | 12.2% | Europe | 70% |
| 13th |  Belgium | 12.1% | Europe | 68% |
| 14th |  Portugal | 12.1% | Europe | 65% |
| 15th |  Hungary | 11.9% | Europe | 62% |
| 16th |  United States | 11.8% | North America | 59% |
| 17th |  New Zealand | 11.0% | Oceania | 57% |
| 18th |  Austria | 10.7% | Europe | 54% |
| 19th |  Finland | 10.0% | Europe | 51% |
| 20th |  Switzerland | 10.0% | Europe | 49% |
| 21st |  Canada | 9.8% | North America | 46% |
| 22nd |  Estonia | 9.6% | Europe | 43% |
| 23rd |  Poland | 9.2% | Europe | 41% |
| 24th |  Slovakia | 9.0% | Europe | 38% |
| 25th |  Luxembourg | 8.8% | Europe | 35% |
| 26th |  Australia | 8.5% | Oceania | 32% |
| 27th |  Denmark | 8.4% | Europe | 30% |
| 28th |  Germany | 8.0% | Europe | 27% |
| 29th |  Slovenia | 7.9% | Europe | 24% |
| 30th |  Latvia | 7.8% | Europe | 22% |
| 31st |  Sweden | 7.0% | Europe | 19% |
| 32nd |  Ireland | 6.5% | Europe | 16% |
| 33rd |  Japan | 6.0% | Asia | 14% |
| 34th |  Iceland | 4.7% | Europe | 11% |
| 35th |  Norway | 4.6% | Europe | 8% |
| 36th |  Czechia | 4.5% | Europe | 5% |
| 37th |  Netherlands | 4.1% | Europe | 3% |