RIYADH — New research published by the Misk Foundation has found that, while youth around the world are optimistic about the future, almost half (45%) of those interested in starting their own venture have not done so because they do not have the necessary support. Yo ung people are also concerned about a lack of suitable education and on-the-job training. These are among the main findings of the first Global Youth Index, which was developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit with the support of the Misk Foundation. The index is a tool for understanding ways of empowering young people to become active participants in the knowledge economy.

The Global Youth Index (GYI) analyzes the extent to which young people in 25 countries areprepared for the future, based on five domains: education and skills, employment, entrepreneurship, global citizenship and the knowledge economy ecosystem. Collectively, the countries comprise 70 per cent of the world’s youth population and 80 per cent of global GDP. The GYI ranks each country according to their young people’s preparedness for the future. It draws on an analysis of three perspectives:

• A new survey of 25,000 young people aged 18 – 30 about their attitudes towards the future • The latest quantitative data on youth development and the factors affecting it • Qualitative scores on factors such as, but not limited to, government strategies for youth entrepreneurship

Sweden tops the index, reflecting its high performance in three domains: it has the best knowledge economy ecosystem for youth and the third best ranking for the entrepreneurship and global citizenship domains.

Overall, young people are optimistic about the future throughout all of the countries, the research finds, but meeting these positive expectations will be a serious challenge. Young people aged between 15 and 24 are nearly three times as likely to be unemployed than those between 25 and 55.

Among the countries surveyed, South Africa had the highest youth unemployment rate (57.4 per cent), followed by Jordan (39.8 per cent) and Italy (36.9 per cent). On the other end of the scale, Japan (4.6 per cent) and Germany (6.4 per cent) recorded the lowest level of youth unemployment.

The GYI also highlighted a large divide between the genders. Although female enrolment in tertiary education is higher than it is for males (at 39 per cent compared to 35 per cent for men)1, some countries buck this trend. India, Indonesia, Pakistan, South Africa and Nigeria all have female enrolment ratios that are significantly below the global level (from 29.5 per cent in Indonesia to 8.3 per cent in Nigeria). In some countries, the young female population is particularly likely to be left out of the labour market, with the female NEET2 rate seven times higher than the male rate in Pakistan, six times higher in India and nearly four times higher in Saudi Arabia. The NEET gender gap is lowest in Denmark.

Canada tops the rankings for entrepreneurship, followed by Australia and Sweden. Across all respondents, 68 per cent said they would like to start their own business. Access to education was regarded as the single most important global challenge, with 82 per cent of all those surveyed saying it was important, followed by food and water scarcity (80 per cent), and health (78 per cent).

Shaima Hamidaddin, executive manager at the Misk Global Forum. said: “International organizations can sometimes talk about young people, instead of listening to them. We commissioned the Global Youth Index to improve everyone’s understanding of the global challenges facing young people.

“Within Saudi Arabia, we want to identify areas for improvement, such as adopting new government initiatives and providing more support to budding entrepreneurs.”

“Elsewhere, we hope international policymakers can benchmark how their countries are performing against the Index’s five domains and identify gaps that need addressing, while the private sector can focus on developing economic opportunities for young people and help them to develop more work-related skills.”

“One of the reasons Sweden tops the index is its commitment to addressing youth policies and strategies since the 1940s. If more countries follow their example, it will become clear how supporting young people benefits all parts of society, in all countries around the world.”

The scores for the 57 qualitative and quantitative indicators – based on 105 underlying sub-indicators – were used to produce the rankings.

The overall rankings are as follows (on a scale of one to 100):

1. Sweden – 64.2

2. Australia – 62.9

3. United Kingdom – 62.2

4. China – 60.6

5. Canada – 60.1

6. South Korea – 59.9

7. United States – 59.8

8. Germany – 59.2

9. Denmark – 58.4

10. France – 55.7

11. Japan – 54.3

12. Italy – 52.1

13. Russia – 49.0

14. South Africa – 49.0

15. Turkey – 48.8

16. India – 48.5

17. Mexico – 47.2

18. Argentina – 46.5

19. Brazil – 46.2

20. Saudi Arabia – 45.8

21. Indonesia – 45.7

22. Nigeria – 38.4

23. Egypt – 38.3 24. Jordan – 37.6 25. Pakistan – 34.8 — SG