Italy halves youth NEET share over decade to 13.3% as 1.2 million remain disengaged
A new joint study shows Italy's NEET rate fell from 25.7% in 2015 to 13.3% in 2025, leaving 1.2 million young people outside education and employment at an annual economic cost of 24 billion euros.
Declining NEET rates across Italy
The share of young Italians aged 15 to 29 who are not in education, employment, or training dropped to 13.3% in 2025, according to a joint study presented at the Gioia 22 tower in Milan. Conducted by the Walter Tobagi School of Journalism alongside Intesa Sanpaolo and Fondazione Cariplo, the report tracks a decline from 25.7% in 2015 and 15.3% in 2024. Despite this contraction, Italy still counts 1.2 million young people in the NEET category. Demographic shrinkage among youth, higher enrolment in universities and technical institutes, and expanding private training schemes drove the reduction over the decade.
- 2015
- 25.7 %
- 2024
- 15.3 %
- 2025
- 13.3 %
Six profiles and gender disparities
The study outlines six distinct profiles within Italy's NEET population rather than a single homogeneous group. These include low-educated youth facing social marginalisation, graduates with high expectations seeking specific roles, university dropouts, discouraged jobseekers, precarious or informal workers, and women with caregiving duties. Among the 1.2 million total, 35% are unemployed, 33.3% are available to work but not actively searching or immediately ready, and 31.7% are neither seeking work nor available.
- Unemployed
- 35 %
- Available but not actively searching
- 33.3 %
- Not searching and unavailable
- 31.7 %
Gender gaps remain pronounced across the age bracket. In 2025, the NEET rate for young women reached 14.9%, compared with 11.8% for men. Among those who are neither searching nor available, women make up the majority, with mothers citing childcare and family care responsibilities in more than half of cases.
Tackling the NEET phenomenon means acting on skills, but also helping young people recover awareness, confidence in their abilities, and a perspective for the future.
Economic costs and employment mismatch
The economic burden of youth disengagement remains high, with Eurofound estimating an annual cost to Italy of 24 billion euros in lost production and welfare spending. Italy concurrently faces 1.7 million unfilled job vacancies across businesses, while the unemployment rate for youth aged 15 to 24 stands at 20.3%. Aligning Italy's NEET rate with the European Union target of 9% by 2030 would bring approximately 380,000 young people into the workforce.
If we aligned the NEET rate in Italy, today at 13.3%, with the rate planned as Europe's target for 2030, 9%, it would mean bringing about 380,000 young people back into the productive process, and this would have positive effects both on national employment and on economic growth and GDP.
Regional initiatives and corporate training
Regional responses have focused on localized engagement and corporate apprenticeships. Fondazione Cariplo's ZeroNeet program, run with the Lombardy Region and Intesa Sanpaolo, supports 55 local projects across Lombardy and Verbano-Cusio-Ossola. In just over a year, the initiative engaged 459 partner organisations and activated more than 4,500 NEETs. In Lombardy alone, 127,000 youth remain in the category. ZeroNeet coordinator Benedetta Angiari noted that strategies must adapt to territorial structures, contrasting northern small and medium enterprises with southern opportunities in hospitality and tourism. Meanwhile, the nationwide Giovani e Lavoro program has trained roughly 6,000 young people across 15 regions since 2019, placing 80% into stable jobs with 2,500 companies.
