Youth Study Southeast Europe 2024: Independent but concerned

When asked about the concerns that drive them regarding the future of their respective countries, youth in Southeast Europe place corruption and unemployment at the top. This is the result of the representative Southeast Europe Youth Study 2024 commissioned by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, which surveyed the attitudes, hopes, and concerns of young people in twelve countries.

Corruption and Job Insecurity as the Biggest Concerns

For 62 percent of respondents, corruption is the biggest problem their countries will face in the next decade, followed by unemployment and emigration. Young people often first encounter corruption in the education system: 61 percent believe that grades and exams at institutions and universities in their countries can be bought. Another significant issue throughout the region is job insecurity, with precarious employment—characterized by unstable contracts—being the dominant form of work for young people. In countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia, more than 40 percent of young people are pessimistic about finding stable employment. What has particularly increased are concerns and fears of war, violence, illness, as well as environmental pollution and climate change. The fear of war has risen the most (51.5 percent).

The Possibility of EU Membership Raises Hopes

Trust in democracy as a political system is declining across the region, although many young people continue to support democratic values. Notably, young people in non-EU countries show a higher voter turnout than their peers in EU member states. The possibility of EU membership continues to spark optimism in non-member states, with many young people associating the EU with a path to a more prosperous future. In contrast, youth in EU member states are becoming increasingly pessimistic about the current state of the economy and job market in their home countries. As a result, young people in Southeast Europe continue to express a strong desire to emigrate: almost half of them expressed a strong wish to leave their home country, primarily for economic reasons.

Methodology

A representative survey conducted by IPSOS between February 9 and March 25, 2024 through 8,943 interviews with young people aged 14 to 29 in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Greece, and Turkey, using computer-assisted online interviews (CAWI), computer-assisted telephone interviews, and computer-assisted personal interviews. More details on the methodology can be found in the study.

Download the Youth Study 2024 here!

For more information, you can also check out the information on Southeast Europe at our central Youth Studies website in English and German.

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