Main challenges to social inclusion

The transition from school to work is the main challenge to social inclusion of young people. Even though unemployment rates are decreasing among young Swedes, there are groups of young people who face major difficulties in entering into the labour market.

Young immigrants, those with immigrant background, young people with disabilities or those who have been in institutional care are over-represented among young people who have not completed secondary education. They are therefore at the greatest risk of encountering problems in getting established in the society and in the labour market.

Swedish upper secondary schools provide education free of charge to all pupils who have completed compulsory schooling. One of the main contemporary challenges is the increasing number of students who do not complete compulsory school, and are therefore not eligible for a national upper secondary school programme. The proportion rose from 14.4% in 2015 to 17.5% in 2017. In 2020, the share went back to 14.4% only to rise to 16.3% in 2024. 

Young people not eligible for a national upper secondary school programme are offered places on introductory programmes. Therefore almost every young person (about 98%) starts upper secondary education, although many drop out or take a break in their studies. Of the students who started upper secondary school in 2019 83% had obtained a diploma or a study certificate within four years (ungidag.se).

Developments during the past years have been marked by increasing differentiation within the educational system. Today there is a real socio-economic, ethnic and performance based segregation in schools, at both primary and secondary levels. Students who live in socially deprived areas have a worse starting point in their transition from school to work compared with students in more affluent areas, according to a study by the Swedish National Agency for Education in 2018 (Rapport 467:2018) .

Other challenge to social inclusion is young people suffering from honour-based violence and oppression, which particularly limits girls and young LGBTI people. Another issue is that young people in minority groups are facing prejudice and exclusion.

Asylum seekers and newly arrived

In 2015, Sweden was the largest recipient of asylum seekers per capita in the EU – 16,5 per 1 000 inhabitants. According to the Swedish Migration Board’s statistics, 40% of the 162 877 asylum seekers who arrived in Sweden in 2015 were children and young people of school age.

Up to the age of 18, young asylum seekers have the right to education, either in pre-school, compulsory school or an introductory programme in upper secondary school. The number of unaccompanied minors rose sharply from 7 000 in 2014 to 35 369 in 2015, but has since then dropped down to 497 in 2024. 

Main concepts

The Swedish Government has initiated a number of comprehensive programmes and actions, where the target group consists of young people in a more vulnerable position, such as NEETs, young people at risk for violence and radicalisation, young people with a migrant or ethnic minority background, young LGBTI people, children with disabilities and newly arrived young people.