More Scottish teenagers in work, education or training – but poorest five times more likely to miss out
Skills Development Scotland figures show 93.6% of 16 to 19-year-olds were participating in March, up from 93.3% a year earlier, with East Renfrewshire top and Clackmannanshire bottom.
A college campus in Glasgow. Most 16 to 19-year-olds in Scotland are now in some form of education. · Photograph: Thomas Nugent (CC BY-SA 2.0)
More Scottish teenagers are in work, education or training than a year ago, new figures show – but young people from the poorest areas remain more than five times as likely to be left out.
Figures published on Tuesday by Skills Development Scotland (SDS) show that 93.6% of those aged 16 to 19 were in work, education or training on March 31, up from 93.3% at the same point in 2025.
Most in education
The large majority of young people – 70.8% – were in education, with 20.6% in work and 2.2% in training.
The proportion not participating – often described as "Neets", meaning not in employment, education or training – fell slightly from 3.9% to 3.7%.
Of those, 2% were actively seeking to take part, the same as last year, while 1.7% were classed as economically inactive, down from 1.9%.
The poverty gap
The figures again highlight a stark divide by background. Teenagers from the most deprived areas were more than five times more likely to be a Neet than their more affluent peers – 6.7% compared with 1.2%.
That gap has narrowed slightly since last year, when the figures were 7.1% and 1.3% respectively, but it remains one of the clearest signs of how disadvantage affects young people's chances after school.
East Renfrewshire top, Clackmannanshire bottom
There were also notable differences between council areas. East Renfrewshire, which regularly tops Scotland's school attainment tables, had the highest participation rate at 97.1%. Clackmannanshire had the lowest, at 90.9%.
Why it matters
The issue of young people falling out of education and work has come to the fore for governments on both sides of the border in recent years. Being out of work or study as a teenager is linked to lower earnings and poorer health later in life, and ministers in Edinburgh and London have both made reducing the numbers a priority.
The annual participation measure tracks every 16 to 19-year-old in Scotland, making it one of the most complete pictures of what young people do after leaving school.
For Glasgow and the surrounding council areas, where deprivation levels vary sharply from one neighbourhood to the next, the gap between the richest and poorest areas will be watched closely.