UK NEET — YOUNG PEOPLE NOT IN EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT OR TRAINING
GBTT DATA RELEASE · LABOUR MARKET
Britain crosses the one-million NEET line for the first time since 2013 — the inactivity problem the Treasury can no longer pretend is cyclical.
The number Westminster has been quietly bracing for finally arrived this morning. 1,012,000 16–24 year-olds are now not in education, employment or training in the UK — the first time the total has crossed the one-million mark since 2013, and up from 957,000 in the previous quarter. The NEET rate has risen to 13.5%, from 12.8%. Concentration in the older cohort is the more uncomfortable detail: 928,000 18–24 year-olds are now NEET, the working-age slice that should be paying tax and is instead drawing on the welfare bill, the dependency ratio, and the productivity catastrophe that sits beneath all of it. The driver this quarter is rising economic inactivity, not unemployment. A system that finds it easier to write young people off than to bring them back is not a welfare state. It is a one-way door. An economy that cannot employ its young cannot fund its old.
Damian PudnerSENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW, GREAT BRITISH THINK TANK
JANUARY–MARCH 2026 · THE HEADLINE NUMBERS
TOTAL NEET
1,012k
YOUNG PEOPLE AGED 16–24 NEET, UK
+55,000 QoQ. Above one million for the first time since 2013.
NEET RATE
13.5%
% OF ALL 16–24 YEAR-OLDS IN THE UK
+0.7pp QoQ. Highest rate in over twelve years.
18–24 NEET
928k
OLDER COHORT, 18–24 YEAR-OLDS
Working-age concentration. Direct exposure to welfare and tax base.
UNDER THE HEADLINE · COMPOSITION
ECONOMICALLY INACTIVE
~580k
Not seeking work, not in education. Driver of this quarter's rise.
UNEMPLOYED
~432k
Actively seeking work but unable to find it.
QUARTERLY CHANGE
+55,000
Up from 957,000 in Oct–Dec 2025. Acceleration in the trend.
YEAR-ON-YEAR CHANGE
+0.4pp
Rate up from 13.1% in Jan–Mar 2025. Trend now structural.
LONG-TERM SICK (16–24)
~270k
Mental health a rising share. Welfare conditionality lagging.
FISCAL EXPOSURE
£20bn+
Annualised cost across benefits, foregone tax and productivity (GBTT est.).
HISTORIC TREND · 16–24 NEET TOTAL, UK, 2010–2026
NEET total has crossed one million for the first time since 2013.
16–24 NEET total, UK, thousands, end of period
NEET total (thousands)One million reference line
After a decade trending lower from the 2011 post-financial-crisis peak, the NEET total bottomed at roughly 750,000 in 2017–18 and has been drifting higher since the pandemic. The crossing of the one-million line is not a noisy data point. It is the resumption of a structural problem the post-1997 model never solved — and an early warning to the long-run fiscal arithmetic underneath the welfare bill.
Source: ONS, Young People Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET), UK: May 2026, released 28 May 2026. Historical series uses ONS quarterly Q4 prints (16–24, UK, seasonally adjusted). LFS data labelled "official statistics in development". Composition figures for unemployed / inactive / long-term sick / fiscal cost are GBTT estimates derived from the latest release and supporting ONS datasets.