Nearly one in three young people in Turkey is neither working nor studying, the highest rate among members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), according to the OECD’s Education at a Glance 2025 report, Turkish Minute reported.
The country also ranks last in Europe for employing recent university graduates, according to Eurostat data.
The OECD report found that 31.3 percent of people aged 18 to 24 in Turkey are neither in employment, education nor training, more than double the OECD average of 14.1 percent. The gap between men and women is stark, with 41.6 percent of young women disengaged compared with 22.1 percent of men.
Turkey also ranks last among 33 European countries in employing recent university graduates, with only 63.5 percent in work, according to Eurostat data cited by Euronews. The European Union average is 84.9 percent, while Bulgaria, Estonia and the Netherlands lead with rates above 92 percent.
Structural challenges and skills gap
The OECD report and a complementary analysis by the TEDMEM, a research center affiliated with the nonprofit Turkish Education Association (TED), indicate that the data reveal structural imbalances between Turkey’s education and employment systems. TEDMEM noted that the rapid expansion of higher education has not been accompanied by improvements in quality, resulting in a mismatch between graduates’ skills and labor market demand.
According to TEDMEM’s review of OECD data, the employment rate among university graduates is 75.4 percent, compared with the OECD average of 87.1 percent. For high school graduates, the figure is 63 percent. Unemployment rates are almost identical across education levels — 11.2 percent for those without a high school diploma, 10.2 percent for high school graduates and 10.6 percent for university graduates — suggesting that higher education no longer guarantees better job security.
Low attainment and early education gap
Half of adults aged 25 to 64 in Turkey have not completed high school, compared to an OECD average of roughly one in five. Only 26.9 percent of Turkish adults have a university degree, compared with 41.9 percent across the OECD. Among 25 to 34-year-olds, the share without a high school diploma decreased from 41 percent to 28 percent between 2013 and 2023, while the proportion of university graduates increased from 35 percent to 44 percent.
Turkey also ranks last in early childhood education. Enrollment among children aged three to five increased from 28 percent in 2013 to 54 percent in 2023, still well below the OECD average of 85 percent. Among three-year-olds, the rate is 15 percent, compared with the OECD average of 79 percent, according to national data reported by T24.
Participation in vocational education has declined, falling from 45 percent in 2013 to 35 percent in 2023. Forty-two percent of students begin university at least one year late, while 64 percent complete their degree on time or earlier. The first-year dropout rate is 1 percent, the lowest among OECD countries.
Funding, teachers and class size
Public spending on education has decreased. The share of the national budget allocated to education fell from 12.9 percent to 10.6 percent. On a total-expenditure basis, Turkey spends $4,032 per student in primary and secondary school and $10,825 for those receiving a tertiary education, versus OECD averages of $13,527 and $21,444, respectively. On a government-expenditure basis, Turkey spends $3,374 per student at the primary and secondary levels and $7,698 for those in tertiary education, compared with OECD averages of $12,438 and $15,102, respectively.
Compulsory education in Turkey spans eight years and 6,251 hours, compared to an OECD average of nine years and 7,604 hours. In primary education, public schools have an average of 22 students per class compared with 11 in private schools.
Teacher pay remains among the lowest in the OECD. Senior teachers earn only 29 percent more than new hires, whereas in most OECD countries, the difference ranges from 57 to 62 percent.
International students and global comparison
Turkey hosts 4.3 percent of all international students worldwide, with 71 percent coming from Asia, 20 percent from Africa and 8 percent from Europe. The country also has the lowest first-year dropout rate in higher education among OECD members.
The OECD report concluded that Turkey’s progress in expanding access to education has not yet translated into economic opportunity. It said that without better alignment between education policies and labor market needs, the country risks losing a generation of young people to inactivity.
