‘The State of Youth Policy in 2013′: Youth Policy Labs Report Overview and Summary Guide

As of January 2013, of 198 countries, 99 (50%) have a current youth policy. A further 56 (28%) are revising their existing or, in a few cases, developing their first national youth policy. A total of 43 states (22%) has no youth policy (yet). Click through for the details. Here’s a summary guide to the 2013 publication of the Youth Policy Labs annual review of the state of youth policy around the world.

Which countries have a national youth policy?

As of January 2013, of 198 countries, 99 (50%) have a current youth policy. A further 56 (28%) are revising their existing or, in a few cases, developing their first national youth policy. A total of 43 states (22%) has no youth policy (yet).

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 one of the next reports on the state of youth policy we will introduce some more 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: January 18, 2013)
World total	198	99	50 %	56	28 %	43	22 %
Africa
Eastern Africa	18	5	28 %	9	50 %	4	22 %
Middle Africa	9	3	33 %	1	11 %	5	56 %
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 %	4	25 %
Africa total	54	21	39 %	16	30 %	17	31 %
Americas
Latin America & Caribbean
Caribbean	14	5	36 %	7	50 %	2	14 %
Central America	8	5	63 %	3	38 %	0	0 %
South America	12	7	58 %	3	25 %	2	17 %
Subtotal LAC	34	17	50 %	13	38 %	4	12 %
Northern America
Northern America	2	0	0 %	1	50 %	1	50 %
Subtotal NA	2	0	0 %	1	50 %	1	50 %
Americas total	36	17	47 %	14	39 %	5	14 %
Asia
Central Asia	5	3	60 %	1	20 %	1	20 %
Eastern Asia	6	4	67 %	0	0 %	2	33 %
Southern Asia	9	4	44 %	4	44 %	1	11 %
South-Eastern Asia	11	6	55 %	1	9 %	4	36 %
Western Asia	18	6	33 %	8	44 %	4	22 %
Asia total	49	23	47 %	14	29 %	12	24 %
Europe
Eastern Europe	10	8	80 %	1	10 %	1	10 %
Northern Europe	10	6	60 %	2	20 %	2	20 %
Southern Europe	15	9	60 %	3	20 %	3	20 %
Western Europe	9	4	44 %	2	22 %	3	33 %
Europe total	44	27	61 %	8	18 %	9	20 %
Oceania
Australia & New Z.	2	2	100 %	0	0 %	0	0 %
Melanesia	4	3	75 %	1	25 %	0	0 %
Micronesia	5	3	60 %	2	40 %	0	0 %
Polynesia	4	3	75 %	1	25 %	0	0 %
Oceania total	15	11	73 %	4	27 %	0	0 %
World
World total	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.