Youth Disconnection in America 2025

Full report coming soon!

Over the last decade, we have charted a steady decline in the national youth disconnection rate as the country recovered from the Great Recession, followed by a sharp upward spike in 2020 caused by Covid-19. The 2023 national youth disconnection rate is 10.6 percent, or 4,150,300 disconnected youth—this is the first year the rate has dropped below the pre-pandemic rate of 10.7 percent. 

Disconnected youth or opportunity youth, refers to teens and young adults ages 16–24 years who are neither working nor in school. The youth disconnection rate is a vital metric of access to opportunity and societal well-being. People acquire skills, credentials, habits, and experiences fundamental to a rewarding, productive, and joyous life during their teens and early twenties. The youth disconnection rate thus tells us which young people in our society have the chance to lay the groundwork for freely chosen, flourishing lives and which groups face serious challenges in the transition to adulthood. Research shows that being disconnected as a young person has long-term consequences; it’s associated with lower earnings, less education, worse health, and even less happiness in later adulthood. Determining who remains disconnected, and why, is vital to identifying strategies and interventions.

CALIFORNIA IN FOCUS

About one in ten disconnected youth call California home. The rate of disconnection statewide is comparable to the national average, 10.7 and 10.6 percent, respectively. However, rates vary widely among demographic groups, highlighting stark disparities across gender and race and ethnicity. Disconnection rates for California are listed below; note that asterisked estimates are less reliable.