Compared to a decade earlier, the dropout rate has fallen by 8.9 points, from 21.9% in 2014 to 13% today

Early school leavers dropped last year to 13%, 0.7 points lower than in 2023, marking the lowest rate in history. Since 2018, this indicator has fallen by five points. These data come from the Labour Force Survey published today.

Early dropout from education training is the percentage of people aged 18 to 24 who have not completed upper secondary education (Intermediate Vocational Training, Basic Vocational Training or Baccalaureate) and who were not following any type of training in the previous four weeks. Last year, this rate stood at 13.7%.

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Early school leavers hit an all-time low of 13% in 2024

Compared to a decade earlier, the dropout rate has fallen by 8.9 points (40.7%), from 21.9% in 2014 to 13% today. The gap with the EU average has also narrowed from 10.8 points ten years ago to 3.5 points in 2024.

The population aged 20-24 having reached at least the second stage of Secondary Education reached 79.9% in 2024, which is 14.1 points higher than in 2014 (65.8%) and 0.9 points higher than in 2023. In addition, the percentage of the population aged 25-34 who have attained tertiary education rises by 0.6 points to 52.6%, exceeding the target of at least 45% completion of tertiary education set for 2030.

By gender, the drop-out rate among men in 2024 is slightly lower than in the previous year (down 0.3 percentage points), standing at 15.8%. For women, the drop-out rate has decreased by 1.3 percentage points to 10 per cent.

In recent years, the Ministry has carried out various initiatives to reduce the rate of early school leavers, one of the Government’s objectives. In addition to the implementation of programmes for students with more difficulties, such as PROA+, in which 360 million euros have been invested, the transformation of Vocational Training has provided a new window for young people to quality and well-paid jobs, which encourages them to remain in the education system.