Declining rates of early school leavers: Cyprus outperforms EU target

The share of “early school leavers” (young people aged 18-24 leaving early from education and training after having completed at most a lower secondary education) has steadily decreased in the EU over the last 10 years, while in Cyprus this share has fallen below the target set on the EU level, according to data released by Eurostat, the statistical service of the EU.

According to the same data, in Cyprus, this share fell from 11% in 2012 to 8% in 2022. In the EU, the share fell from 13% in 2012 to 10% in 2022, not having reached the target of reducing the rates of early school leavers at the EU level to below 9% by 2030.

Data show that more young men left education and training early than women in 2022, 11% of men vs 8% of women. The share of men decreased from almost 15% in 2012 to 11% in 2022. Regarding young women, the share fell from almost 11% in 2012 to 8% in 2022.

In Cyprus, 9% of men and 7% of women left education early in 2022. The share dropped significantly compared to 2012 among men (from 17%), but didn’t move among women (before rounding up, data shows a small decrease from 7.0% to 6.9%).

Compared with 2012, two-thirds of all EU members reported a smaller share of early leavers in 2022, except for Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Austria, Slovakia and Sweden, which reported small increases (the highest being around +2 pp).

In 2022, the EU members that reported the lowest shares of early leavers from education and training were Croatia (2%), Ireland, Slovenia and Greece (each 4%), Poland and Lithuania (each 5%).

In contrast, the highest shares were recorded in Romania (16%), Spain (14%), Hungary, Germany and Italy (each 12%).

Eighteen EU members have already met the EU-level target for 2030 for this indicator: Belgium, Czechia, Ireland, Greece, France, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden.

In 2022, the share of early leavers from education and training was lower for young women than for young men across all EU members apart from Bulgaria (men 9%, women 12%) and Greece (men 4%, women 5%).