Greece has experienced a marked improvement in youth outcomes over the past decade, following the severe and prolonged downturn of the 2010s. Nevertheless, young people in Greece continue to navigate a range of structural challenges on their path to financial independence, with outcomes still trailing most OECD peers. This report identifies a series of opportunities to strengthen outcomes for young people in Greece across education, employment, entrepreneurship, income support, housing and family policies. Targeted and co‑ordinated action could build on the progress already achieved in recent years and help deliver meaningful progress for young people towards financial independence. This report on Greece is the fourteenth in a series of country reports on Investing in Youth.
Challenges for Young People in Greece to Reach Financial Independence
Abstract
Executive summary
Greece has experienced a marked improvement in youth outcomes over the past decade, following the severe and prolonged downturn of the 2010s. Greece’s economic growth (2.1% in 2025) has consistently outpaced the Euro area average (1.3%) in recent years, and labour market conditions have gradually improved. The youth employment rate (for the age group 15‑29) rose from a low of 26% in 2013 to 36% in 2025, while youth unemployment fell from 48.7% at its heigh in 2013 to 16.5% in 2025. The gender gap in youth unemployment, once as wide as nine percentage points (p.p.), has narrowed considerably. Young people show strong interest in entrepreneurship, with a self-employment rate for 20‑29 year‑olds at 11% in 2025, among the highest in the OECD. For young people in Greece, reaching financial independence – building a stable career, accessing adequate and affordable housing, and starting a family if and when they choose – is central to their transition to adulthood. The Greek Government has placed this objective at the heart of its National Action Plan for Demography, with a dedicated set of youth-related actions.
Nevertheless, young people in Greece continue to navigate a range of structural challenges on their path to financial independence, with outcomes still trailing most OECD peers. Youth employment and unemployment rates remain comparatively weak, and wages lag EU-OECD levels, with a larger share of young workers concentrated in seasonal, tourism-related roles and facing a mismatch between their skills and labour market needs. Youth entrepreneurship is common but often driven by limited job opportunities rather than market opportunities. These labour market pressures are compounded by broader family and housing dynamics: fertility continues to decline, early childhood education participation is improving but has room to catch up with OECD levels, and housing affordability remains a key concern, with most young adults living with their parents well into their late twenties as they navigate a tight rental market and limited opportunities for home ownership.
In recent years, the government has taken considerable steps across each of these policy areas to improve conditions for young people. These include reforms to modernise public employment services and strengthen training provision, improve the quality and relevance of vocational education and training, reinforce the support ecosystem for young entrepreneurs, expand parental leave and childcare support, extend income support for families, and set the groundwork to expand the supply of affordable and social rental housing. These efforts reflect a growing recognition of the importance of supporting young people’s transition to financial independence and provide a strong foundation to build on.
Sustaining and building on this progress will require co‑ordinated action across diverse policy areas. Reducing skills mismatches calls for sustained investment in vocational education and training, wider access to career guidance, and more opportunities for young people to combine study and work. Strengthening the counselling capacity of the public employment service and rigorously evaluating training and wage subsidy programmes would help ensure that support reaches those who need it most. For young entrepreneurs, closer integration of financial and non-financial support, together with greater access to early-stage finance and role models, would help translate widespread interest in entrepreneurship into more sustainable and impactful businesses. Family policy would benefit from continued efforts to improve the affordability and quality of early childhood education and care, along with efforts to ensure income support keeps pace with the needs of families with children. On housing, further expanding the supply of affordable and social rental housing, improving affordability and quality in the private rental sector, and closely monitoring the impact of existing demand-side housing support measures would bring benefits to young people who are currently struggling in the housing market.
The findings of this report identify a series of opportunities to strengthen outcomes for young people in Greece across education, employment, entrepreneurship, income support, housing and family life. Targeted and co‑ordinated action across these areas and in close co‑ordination with youth representatives could build on the progress already achieved to help deliver meaningful improvements in young people’s opportunities, well-being and economic independence.
