Some 13% of young people in Wales are not in employment, education or training (NEET), according to latest data from the Office for National Statistics.
In the year to March 2025, the number of so-called NEETs in the 16 to 24-year-old cohort was 0.9% higher than a year earlier, but has decreased by 0.3% over the past five years and 3.3% over the last decade.
North Wales had the highest rate of young people who were NEET in the three-year period ending March at 13.9% , with mid and south-west Wales having the lowest rate at 12.6%.
In the three-year period the proportion of disabled people who were NEET was 19.0% for those aged 16 to 18 and 38.6% for those aged 19 to 24.
In the three-year period ending March 2025, 13.3% of young White people were estimated to be NEET compared to 8.8% of young
Black, Asian and minority ethnic people.
Disabled young people are far more likely to be NEET than young people who aren’t.
In the three-year period the proportion of disabled people who are classed as NEET was 19% for those aged 16 to 18 , but as high as 38.6% in the 19 to 24 age group.
Other data from the ONS for the º£½ÇÊÓƵ as a whole, from its improved Labour Force Survey, estimated that the number of NEETs in April to June this year for those aged 16 to 24 years was 948,000, up from 923,000 in January to March 2025.
Some 497,000 were young men and 450,000 were young women.
