2m youth neither working nor in school — GSS

NEARLY two million young Ghanaians aged between 15 and 35 were neither employed nor in education or training as of the third quarter of 2025, with women accounting for more than 60 per cent of the affected population.

The figures are contained in Ghana in Numbers, 2025, the flagship publication of the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), which provides an overview of the country’s population, economy, society, governance and environment.

According to the report, the average proportion of young people aged between 15 and 35 who were not in employment, education or training, commonly referred to as the NEET rate, stood at 17.9 per cent during the first three quarters of 2025.

Commenting on the report, the Government Statistician, Dr Alhassan Iddrisu, said the figures were particularly worrying, given the high proportion of young women among those outside employment and education.

“Close to two million young people are neither working nor in education or training, what we refer to as the NEET group, and more than six in 10 of them are young women,” he said.

Dr Iddrisu said the report also showed that youth unemployment remained considerably higher than the national average of 12.8 per cent during the first three quarters of 2025.

Unemployment averaged 32.4 per cent among those aged between 15 and 24 and 21.9 per cent among people aged between 15 and 35. The rate stood at 20.6 per cent in urban areas, 18 per cent in rural communities and 25.3 per cent in the Central Region.

He said the situation was particularly significant because Ghana’s youth population continued to expand, with about 12 million people, representing roughly one-third of the country’s population, aged between 15 and 35 in 2025. This was the largest youth population in the country’s history.

Dr Iddrisu, however, said the challenge went beyond creating jobs, as the quality of employment and the extent to which workers were able to apply their education and skills were equally important.

He said about 65 per cent of employed young people reported that their skills matched the jobs they performed, but only 58 per cent indicated that their educational qualifications were suited to their work.

He added that more than 70 per cent of jobs in the country were in the informal sector, raising concerns about job security and access to employment protection.

Dr Iddrisu said Ghana needed to act quickly to take advantage of its youthful population, warning that the opportunity presented by the country’s changing population structure would not remain open indefinitely.

The report indicated that the country’s demographic window opened in the early 2000s but had been narrowing since 2019.

“Ghana’s youth window is open, but it is closing. Our choices on schooling, skills and jobs in the next 10 years will decide whether it becomes a dividend or a burden,” he said.

Ghana in Numbers, 2025 brings together population, labour market, education and skills indicators to support evidence-based planning.

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