One of the overarching aims of the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027 is to create more and equal opportunities for all young people to participate in education, the labour market and in society at large. The development of a national strategy on social inclusion is one of the means to address the exclusion of young people with fewer opportunities. A strategy is an overarching public document, an action plan, or a set of official documents indicating the main directions to be followed in the organisation of policy making at national level.

About half of European countries address the social inclusion of young people through both their National Youth Strategy and one or more broad top-level strategy(ies) or programme(s) targeting the wider population, which include a particular focus on youth. The latter are usually strategies for combatting social exclusion and poverty, for promoting education and employment, for fostering the inclusion of particular groups of people (e.g. those who are homeless, disabled, at risk of crime or radicalisation or belonging to the LGBTIQA+ community).

In the other half of the surveyed countries, the social inclusion of young people is addressed only through such broader top-level strategy(ies)/programme(s). Only a few tackle the topic uniquely through the National Youth Strategy.