‘The State of Youth Policy in 2014’: Youth Policy Labs Report Overview and Summary Guide

Back in January 2013, of 198 countries, only 99 (50%) had a current youth policy. 15 months later, the situation has changed impressively. Here’s a summary guide to the 2014 publication of the Youth Policy Labs annual review of the state of youth policy around the world. The report, which combines data, research and published articles, was officially launched in Sri Lanka at the World Conference on Youth in May 2014.

Which countries have a national youth policy?

As of April 2014, of 198 countries, 122 countries (62%) have a national youth policy, up from 99 (50%) in 2013. Across all continents, 37 states (19%) are either developing a new or revising their current youth policy, down from 56 (28%) in 2013. 31 countries have no national youth policy at the moment (16%), down from 43 (22%) in 2013. Of those, 14 are in Africa, 9 in Asia, 5 in the Americas, and 3 in Europe.

See the map and the key numbers in the table below.

The full report (pdf, 10 MB) is available in our library, including an overview of where national youth platforms (page 29 ff.) and national youth authorities (page 33 ff.) for youth exist.

You can access and download most of the existing national youth policies as well as drafts for youth policies under revision at https://www.youthpolicy.org/nationalyouthpolicies/, where we maintain the most comprehensive global overview of national youth policies.

Full details for the regions of the world are in the table below.

We use the UN Statistics Division’s geoscheme to refer to the geographical (continental) regions and geographical sub-regions of the world (additional info).

Note that the existence of a national youth policy does not necessarily mean that it is being implemented - or that it is particularly good for young people.

With the 2015 report on the state of youth policy, we will introduce additional detail with regard to the implementation and quality of existing national youth policies.

Region	Subregion	Total countries (n)	NYP exists (n)	NYP exists (%)	Under revision (n)	Under revision (%)	No NYP at all (n)	No NYP at all (%)
World (status quo: April 28, 2014)
World total in 2014	198	122	62 %	37	19 %	32	16 %
World total in 2013	198	99	50 %	56	28 %	43	22 %
Africa
Eastern Africa	18	7	39 %	7	39 %	3	17 %
Middle Africa	9	3	33 %	1	11 %	4	44 %
Northern Africa	6	1	17 %	1	17 %	4	67 %
Southern Africa	5	4	80 %	1	20 %	0	0 %
Western Africa	16	8	50 %	4	25 %	3	19 %
Africa total in 2014	54	23	43 %	14	26 %	14	26 %
Africa total in 2013	54	21	39 %	16	30 %	17	31 %
Americas
Latin America & Caribbean
Caribbean	14	7	50 %	3	21 %	2	14 %
Central America	8	7	88 %	1	13 %	0	0 %
South America	12	7	58 %	2	17 %	2	17 %
Subtotal LAC	34	21	62 %	6	18 %	4	12 %
Northern America
Northern America	2	1	50 %	1	50 %	0	0 %
Subtotal NA	2	1	50 %	1	50 %	0	0 %
Americas total 2014	36	22	61 %	6	17 %	5	14 %
Americas total 2013	36	17	47 %	14	39 %	5	14 %
Asia
Central Asia	5	5	100 %	0	0 %	0	0 %
Eastern Asia	6	4	67 %	0	0 %	1	17 %
Southern Asia	9	6	67 %	1	11 %	2	22 %
South-Eastern Asia	11	6	55 %	3	27 %	2	18 %
Western Asia	18	7	39 %	7	39 %	4	22 %
Asia total in 2014	49	28	57 %	11	22 %	9	18 %
Asia total in 2013	49	23	47 %	14	29 %	12	24 %
Europe
Eastern Europe	10	9	90 %	0	0 %	0	0 %
Northern Europe	10	9	90 %	0	0 %	1	10 %
Southern Europe	15	11	73 %	3	20 %	1	7 %
Western Europe	9	6	67 %	2	22 %	1	11 %
Europe total in 2014	44	35	80 %	5	11 %	3	7 %
Europe total in 2013	44	27	61 %	8	18 %	9	20 %
Oceania
Australia & New Z.	2	2	100 %	0	0 %	0	0 %
Melanesia	4	4	100 %	0	0 %	0	0 %
Micronesia	5	5	100 %	0	0 %	0	0 %
Polynesia	4	3	75 %	1	25 %	0	0 %
Oceania total 2014	15	14	93 %	1	7 %	0	0 %
Oceania total 2013	15	11	73 %	4	27 %	0	0 %
World
World total in 2014	198	122	62 %	37	19 %	31	16 %
World total in 2013	198	99	50 %	56	28 %	43	22 %

If you would like to access existing national youth policies as well as drafts for youth policies that are currently under revision, head over to https://www.youthpolicy.org/nationalyouthpolicies/, where we maintain the most comprehensive global overview of national youth policies.

The full report (pdf, 10 MB) is available in our library, including an overview of where national youth platforms (page 29 ff.) and national youth authorities (page 33 ff.) for youth exist.

Quick notes on methodology:

Missing countries are those where the status of their youth policy is unclear/unknown. The tables in the full report detail those numbers. Owed to the rounding of the percentages, the numbers as printed above do not always add up to 100 - the full decimal values, however, do (in the report, these control numbers are shown at the very end of each line in each table, to the very right).

How could we resist? Here is our postcard for the launch event of the 2014 report :)