What was claimed
The UK’s youth unemployment rate is the highest in Europe.
Our verdict
Incorrect. The UK’s youth unemployment rate was higher than the EU’s average in Q3 2025, but some individual European countries had higher youth unemployment rates.
“Youth unemployment is already sitting at 16%, the highest in Europe.”
In a Daily Express opinion piece published earlier this month, the writer and broadcaster Esther Krakue claimed the UK’s youth unemployment rate “is the highest in Europe”.
But, as we’ve explained before, this isn’t correct.
The most recent comparable data we have is for Q3 2025. This shows the UK’s unemployment rate for 15 to 24-year-olds was 15.3%, while the EU average was 15.2%.
Several European countries had higher youth unemployment rates than the UK in that quarter, however. It was 25.5% in Romania, for example, 20.9% in Italy and 19% in France.
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The UK had a youth unemployment rate of 16.1% in Q4 2025, but we don’t yet have comparable OECD data for other countries this quarter.
We contacted the Express and are grateful to it for correcting the online version of the article, which now says: ““At the same time, youth unemployment is already sitting at 16%—higher than the EU average.”
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