Official statistics from ONS on the estimates of young people (aged 16 to 24 years) who are not in education, employment or training, by age and sex.
An estimated 13.0% of all people aged 16 to 24 years in the UK were not in education, employment or training (NEET) in April to June 2026. This is up by 0.2 percentage points on the year, but down by 0.5 percentage points compared with January to March 2026.
An estimated 13.7% of young men were NEET, up by 0.4 percentage points on the year, but down 0.6 percentage points on the quarter. Of young women, an estimated 12.3% were NEET, which remained largely the same on the year but was down 0.3 percentage points on the quarter.
There were 981,000 young people who were NEET in April to June 2026, an increase of 30,000 on the year, but a decrease of 30,000 on the quarter. This increase was largely among young men, with an increase of 25,000 on the year, as well as an increase among young women of 4,000 on the year. Of the total number of young people who were NEET, 530,000 were young men and 451,000 were young women.
The total number of people aged 18 to 24 years who were NEET was 894,000, up 17,000 on the year but down 33,000 on the previous quarter.
The percentage of all those aged 18 to 24 years who were NEET was 15.2%, which remained largely the same on the year, but was down by 0.6 percentage points on the quarter.