As part of its online publication series Migrant integration statistics, Eurostat recently published a paper which looks into the position of non-EU and EU citizens in education against a set of indicators relating to early school leaving, tertiary attainment, young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs) and the different levels of education.

The results point to large disparities among EU and non-EU citizens: the proportion of non-EU youth who drop out of school early is more than twice than the proportion of nationals (citizens of the reporting member state – 21% versus 10% respectively) and similarly, there are almost twice as many NEETs among non-EU youngsters than among EU ones (20.6% compared to 12.0% respectively). Overall education levels among non-EU citizens aged 18-64 are lower than those of their EU counterparts, both nationals and citizens of another EU member state. Against the Europe 2020 target of at least 40% of citizens aged 30-34 with tertiary education by 2020, EU citizens are approaching the target at 38.5% (nationals) and 39% (citizens of another EU member state), whereas the share of non-EU citizens is just above 30% (30.2%). Women are more represented than men in higher education, although to a lesser extent among non-EU nationals. 

The results of this Eurostat publication can be found on Migrant integration statistics, together with statistics on employment, social inclusion and active citizenship.