Youth unemployment rate in Catalonia is double EU average

The youth unemployment rate in Catalonia is double that of the European Union’s average, according to the latest figures posted by the European Office of Statistics (Eurostat). 

34% of Catalans aged 15 to 24 were jobless in 2020, meanwhile the EU average calculated 16.9% for the same age bracket . 

For all age groups, unemployment rates in Catalonia were also much higher. In 2020, 12.6% of Catalonia’s population were out of work, with the European average standing at 7.1%. As a result of the pandemic, it is worth noting that across the continent this number was higher than in previous years. 

However, Catalonia was far from being the worst hit area. For instance, the Spanish region of Melilla registered a 71% unemployment statistic among people between the ages of 14 and 24. 

Following Melilla was the Central Greece region with 63.6%, the Spanish region of Ceuta (63.1), Mayotte in France (55%) and the Spanish Canary Islands (51.6%).  

On the other hand, the lowest figure was recorded by Prague, the Czech capital, with just 5.0%, which is less than half of the european average.  

In 2020, recent figures also show that young people were significantly worse off: in over 96% of EU regions the youth rate of unemployment was at least two times of the total unemployment rate. 

Across Spain, the youth unemployment statistic was at 38.3%, and the total was 15.5%, both numbers way above the continental average and also higher than that for Catalonia. In general, territories in the north of Spain did better than those in the south, with only the Basque Country and Navarra registering a total level which was below 10.6%.