Statistical Coordinates Of Youth’s Living Standards. A Comparative Analysis in EU-27

Ciprian IFTIMOAEI (Ciprian.Iftimoaei@iasi.insse.ro)
National Institute of Statistics, “Al. I. Cuza” University of Iasi
Ionuț-Cristian BACIU (Ionut.Baciu@iasi.insse.ro)
Iasi County Directorate of Statistics
Vicențiu-Robert GABOR (Vicentiu.Gabor@iasi.insse.ro)
“Al. I. Cuza” University of Iasi, Iasi County Directorate of Statistics

ABSTRACT

After a health crisis that kept them at home, physically distant from friends, colleagues, and teachers, young people gathered in classrooms, offices, and their favourite places to spend their free time. As declared by the authorities, the end of the pandemic coincided with the start of a geopolitical and security crisis: the war started by Putin’s Russia that impacted the quality of life of European citizens. European economies face the restriction of gas supply from Russia, the scourge of ever-increasing energy prices, and galloping inflation. The fear of war replaced the fear of disease during the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by the fear of poverty. The year 2022 is declared by the European Union as the “European year of youth”. In this respect, the European Commission proposes as a priority objective the inclusion of young people and their problems in the development of future policies, as well as the organization of activities dedicated to young people throughout the EU. From the perspective of the European Commission, the most pressing problem related to young people is the transition from school to work. Young people are the most affected by economic inactivity, underemployment, unemployment, and poverty. Many European countries, including Romania, have problems with the lack of labour force, with young people leaving school early, with young people who do not study or follow any form of professional training. The completion of studies by young people is only sometimes followed by the search for a job to engage and carry out an activity in one of the economic sectors. Postponing youth employment also leads to leaving the parental home late, which represents a form of social self-protection. To analyze the aspects mentioned above, which define the standard of living of young people, we use descriptive statistical analysis, Bravais-Pearson correlation, simple regression and ascending hierarchical classification. The data used in this study come from the Eurostat database.

Keywords: youth, young people, living standard, quality of life, poverty, unemployment, education
JEL Classification: H520, I310, J130

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Romanian Statistical Review 4/2022