Definition of Youth
The national youth policy defines youth as between 15-24 years, but is targeted at “the entire population that currently is under 30 years of age.”
Marriageable Age
- Opposite Sex
- Same Sex
- Without parental consent
- with parental consent
- Male
- 18
- 15
- --
Candidacy Age
- Lower House
- 25 Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union
- Upper House
- --
Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union
Unicameral.
Situation of Young People
Literacy Rates
- 97.18% Male (15-24) %
- 97.89% Female (15-24) %
- Year: 2015
- Source: UNESCO
Net Enrolment Rate
Secondary School- 60.77%Male %
- 62.45% Female %
- Year: 2012
- Source: UNESCO
Situation of Young People
Tobacco Use
Consumed any smokeless or smoking tobacco product at least once 30 days prior to the survey.- 18.20% Male (13-15) %
- 11.00% Female (13-15) %
- Year: 2010
- Source: WHO
Policy & Legislation
The national youth policy (2011-2024) offers long, medium and short terms goals. It details six priority areas of intervention:
- Education: Access, quality & building future human capital;
- Employment, productive development & entrepreneurship;
- Healthcare, risky practices & promotion of healthy lifestyles;
- Culture, entertainment & sport;
- Prevention of violence, public safety & peaceful culture;
- Youth participation & citizenship.
Public Institutions
(ministry, department or office) that is primarily responsible for youth?
Youth and Representation
Budget & Spending
- % of GDP
- % of gov. expenditure
Source: World Bank
Gaps indicate missing data from the original data source. (Accessed August 2013).
Additional Background
In 2008, the National Youth Survey was conducted, which collected the opinions, perceptions, attitudes and lifestyles of 1234 aged 15 to 24 years nationwide. The report (IUDOP, 2008) provides numerous extremely disturbing facts relating to the situation in which they find this group. Emphasizes that: – With regard to education, 1.4% said they did not have any formal education, 21.7% attended elementary, 36.8%, basic design studies, 30.4% had high school education and 9.8% had accessed college. At the time of the interview, 41.6% were studying (38.1% for women and 45.1% in men). –67.7% of the young people surveyed said not be working outside the home at the time of the survey and be verified significant differences by gender. Of all the young men interviewed, almost half (46.6%) reported working outside the home. For women, this situation corresponded to less than a fifth. Among the young people who were working at the time of the survey, 81.3% felt very or somewhat satisfied with their jobs, while only 18.7% said they were paid little or nothing. –In terms of coverage of basic services, nine out of ten young people nationwide have access to electricity service in their homes. 72.1% have access to drinking water, but this percentage is reduced by almost half the inhabitants of rural areas of the country. Practically only half of the respondents have the toilet train service, and most live in urban areas. When sewer service has access only just over 40% of the sample, where the urban-rural disparity is quite evident. –Regarding citizen interest in politics, the results indicate that the young people have generally low interest in this item: 25.5% no interest, 44.1% reported little interest, 16.7% expressed some level of interest and only 13.8% claim to have much interest. In terms of ideological self-identification, 12% is located in the far left, 28.8% in the center and 16.1%, on the far right. The remainder (12%) could not be located in any option or did not answer the question. –When asked about which is the country's main problem, there are two answers: those who believe that the main problem of the country is linked to economic matters (poverty, unemployment, etc.) And those that relate to the problems of violence and insecurity. The vast majority (78.6%) noted that the crime situation in the country increased or remained the same compared with 2006. Similarly, an even larger group (90.2%) said that during the year (2008) the economic situation had worsened or remained the same.