At the state level, youth policy issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina fall within the competence of the Commission for the Coordination of Youth Issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina, operating under the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Civil Affairs. However, Bosnia and Herzegovina does not have a state-level youth law defining youth as a target group.

The constitutional competences for youth policy are predominantly exercised at lower levels of government. As a result, the legal definition of youth is provided through entity and district-level legislation.

All three jurisdictions with youth legislation, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska and the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina, clearly define the age limits of the youth population they target.

The three laws, the Law on Youth Organization of Republika Srpska (2004), the Youth Law of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2010) and the Youth Law of the Brčko District (2017), define the age limits for the youth as a target group aged 15–30. Across these official documents, both the lower and upper age limits are clearly specified, and there is no variation in the age definition of youth between the different levels of government.

With regard to sub-groups within the youth population, none of the above-mentioned laws establish formal age-based sub-categories (such as adolescents or young adults) for the purpose of specific policy measures. Youth policies and measures are generally designed to address the youth population as a single age group, although certain programs may target specific needs (e.g. employment, education or participation) without formally redefining age brackets.

Overall, despite the decentralized governance structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the most commonly and consistently adopted definition of youth across all official youth laws and policy frameworks is the age range 15–30.