State of Youth Policy in 2014 - Special Edition

Of 198 countries, 127 countries (64 %) have a national youth policy, up from 99 (50 %) in January 2013 and 122 in April 2014. In each of the five continental regions, new national youth policies were introduced dur- ing the past 20 months. Europe leads with 9 newly adopted national youth policies, followed by the Americas with 7, Africa with 5, Asia with 4 and Oceania with 3. Africa has the lowest rate of countries with adopted national youth policies: 26 out of 54 countries (48 %) have a policy. Across all continents, 33 states (17 %) are either developing a new or revising their current youth policy, down from 56 in 2013. 29 countries have no national youth policy at the moment (15 %), down from 43 in 2013. The majority are located in Africa (13 countries) and Asia (9 countries). In both cases, there is only one region (Southern Africa and Central Asia) in which every country has a youth policy that is active or under development. The report also contains analysis on the presence of national youth councils/associations and the existence of national youth authorities.