According to the report by the National Education Council (CNE), the proportion of young people aged 15 to 34 who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) has decreased from 15.2 percent in 2014 to 9.5 percent in 2019, according to the CNE report.

However, this indicator is highly variable in the various regions of Portugal, with emphasis on the centre of the country, where the percentage drops to 8.2 percent.

In Madeira and the Azores, this is a more notorious problem: Last year, 16.4 percent of young people were classes as a NEET.

The report draws a picture of the Portuguese educational system in the academic year 2018/2019 and analyses the evolution registered in the last ten years, based on national data and international comparisons.

The “State of Education 2019” reveals that Portugal has improved in the last decade in the area of education and training: School dropout has decreased and more children are attending pre-school education.

In terms of unemployment, young people were the hardest hit last year, and having more qualifications meant getting a job more quickly and earning better wages.

“The group with the most school qualifications registered an average incomes of 85 percent higher than that of the population who only studied until basic education, while in the EU this difference is 73 percent”, says the report.

Taking into account the goals defined by the European Union for 2020, Portugal approached the one defined for the employment rate of recent graduates, with eight out of ten young people (80.3 percent) getting a job (the EU target is 82 percent).