► But jobless rate, low education spending seen as drag on youth’s futures ►
Young people in Spain find themselves ranked relatively high on a just-released Global Youth Wellbeing Index 2017, but the report says Spain’s high rate of youth unemployment is threatening their futures and the country could do better in getting youth involved in society were it to increase citizen participation levels.
Published by the U.S.-based International Youth Foundation (IYF), the 2017 Index ranks the overall well-being of the youth population in 28 countries, assigning scores and ranking based on 35 indicators within seven areas that include: gender equality, economic opportunity, education, health, safety & security, citizen participation, and information & communication technology.
Spain received high scores on the index overall, ranking it sixth among the 28 countries surveyed in terms of youth well-being. On gender equality, Spain ranked 1st and on healthcare available to the youth population the country ranked 2nd, scoring well in part because of the relatively low rates of adolescent fertility and youth suicides or self-harm in Spain. A relatively high score on internal peace (ranking 6th) and low levels of youth interpersonal violence (1 death per 100,000 youth) also helped.
But, Spain slid to the very bottom of the rankings in economic opportunity, with its 58 percent youth unemployment rate the worst found among any country ranked by the Index. And the country’s relatively high rate of youth not in education, employment or training of 17 percent, as well as the country’s below-average expenditures on education (10 percent) also helped to suppress what would have otherwise been a laudatory well-being ranking for Spanish youth.
► Read More in Spanish at Cambio16 and Europa Press …
► Download PDF in English of full Global Youth Wellbeing Index 2017 …
