Malé, Maldives — Statistics revealed by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that 29% of the Maldivian youth are Not engaged in Education, Employment or Training also known as NEET.
According to the statistics revealed by the Ministry of National Planning, Housing & Infrastructure, on the occasion of the national Youth Day of 2020, a survey done on 2016 to find the youth NEET shows that while 24.4% of the women are NEET, approximately only 20.6% of the men are NEET in Maldives.
The reason for the higher percentage of NEET in women is as majority of the women in Maldives spend their time doing unpaid domestic work such as cooking and taking care of their family rather than work. Therefore, in majority of the households of Maldives, men go to work while the women take care of the household.
Furthermore, the statistics also reveal that while the literacy rates for the national language of Maldives, Dhivehi is at 98% for both men and women, the literacy rate for the second most used language in Maldives, English is at 93% for men and 95% for women according to a survey done in 2016.
While the estimated youth population for 2020 is at 240,584, it accounts for 43% of the total population of Maldives. However, it must be noted that although the youth age considered internationally is between the ages 15-24, the youth age considered in Maldives is between the ages 18-34.
