Young people show substantial interest in entrepreneurship, but ambition does not always become business ownership. In the European Union, about 40% of people aged 15–30 preferred self-employment in 2022, while fewer than 4% of young people aged 18–30 operated a new business during the pooled 2018–22 period. These youth entrepreneurship statistics describe different measures and age groups, so they should be read as complementary indicators rather than as a single conversion rate.
Contents
- Ambition and motivations
- Startup participation
- Business ownership and continuity
- Self-employment scale
- Gender, jobs and sectors
- Barriers, finance and support
Ambition and motivations
The OECD’s Youth self-employment and entrepreneurship activities: The Missing Entrepreneurs 2023 reports that about 40% of EU youth aged 15–30 preferred self-employment to employee work in 2022. Country results varied widely. The preference reached 64% in Cyprus and 59% in Lithuania. Portugal and Croatia each recorded 57%, while Spain recorded only 20%.
These figures indicate a wide difference in entrepreneurial ambition across countries, but they measure preference rather than current business ownership. They also come from a 2022 survey period and should not be treated as a current universal estimate for every young person.
Motivations were broader than income. Nearly half of EU youth cited freedom to choose when and where to work as a top reason for preferring self-employment in 2022. About one-third said personal fulfilment from bringing a unique idea to life motivated them. Following passions and interests was an important entrepreneurship goal for 46% of EU youth. Creating their own job was important for 28%, and becoming wealthy was important for 26%.
The pattern matters for leadership and global exchange: young people may view entrepreneurship as a route to autonomy, identity and meaningful work, as well as a route to financial gain. A high preference rate therefore captures aspirations and perceived benefits, not necessarily the number of startups that will be launched.
Startup participation
Startup activity provides a closer measure of action. During 2018–22, more than 5% of EU youth aged 18–30 were actively working on a startup, according to the OECD source above. The comparable rate for the overall EU population aged 18–64 was 4%. In the OECD, about 9% of youth aged 18–30 were working on a startup, compared with an 8% startup activity rate for the total population aged 18–64.
Country differences were substantial. Youth startup activity reached 16% in Latvia, the highest figure among the EU Member States reported for that period. It reached 12% in Croatia and 11% in Lithuania. By contrast, fewer than 3% of young people were actively starting a business in Bulgaria, Spain and Italy. Outside the EU examples reported, the rate reached 21% in Chile and 17% in Colombia.
| Measure | Result | Geography and period |
|---|---|---|
| Youth working on a startup | More than 5% | EU, ages 18–30, 2018–22 |
| Youth working on a startup | About 9% | OECD, ages 18–30, 2018–22 |
| Overall startup activity | 4% | EU, ages 18–64, 2018–22 |
| Overall startup activity | 8% | OECD, ages 18–64, 2018–22 |
| Highest reported EU youth rate | 16% | Latvia, ages 18–30, 2018–22 |
| Reported non-EU rate | 21% | Chile, ages 18–30, 2018–22 |
The pooled 2018–22 results are estimates covering several years, not measurements taken in 2026. They are useful for comparing broad patterns, but they should not be read as a single-year ranking or as proof that one national environment causes a particular outcome.
Business ownership and continuity
Moving from startup activity to operating a young business narrows the measured group. Fewer than 4% of EU youth aged 18–30 operated a new business younger than 42 months during 2018–22. The comparable OECD figure was about 6%. Among EU countries, new-business ownership ranged from 1% in Poland to 8% in Portugal. Canada reached 12% among OECD youth.
Established business ownership was lower among EU youth than among EU adults overall. About 2% of EU youth aged 18–30 operated a business older than 42 months during 2018–22, compared with 7% for all EU adults aged 18–64. Yet country-level results still showed striking variation. Established business ownership among EU youth reached 11% in Greece and was below 1% in France. Among non-EU OECD countries, it reached 8% in Türkiye.
The contrast between ambition, startup activity, new-business ownership and established ownership is important. Each measure describes a different stage: wanting self-employment, actively starting, operating a business younger than 42 months, or operating one beyond that threshold. Because the age ranges and definitions differ, the statistics should not be combined into a single funnel without additional data.
Self-employment scale
Eurostat provides a separate view of the workforce. In 2022, about 7% of employed EU youth aged 20–29 were self-employed, compared with 13% of employed people aged 18–64. The age definitions differ from the OECD and GEM measures, and self-employment is not identical to startup activity or business ownership.
The Eurostat report “EU sees 2.06 million young entrepreneurs in 2025” states that 2.06 million EU people aged 20–29 were self-employed in 2025. They represented 7.9% of all self-employed people aged 20–64. This is a 2025 snapshot of the composition of self-employed people, rather than a percentage of all young people or all young workers.
The share of young people among the self-employed population also varied by country in 2025. It was 12.2% in Slovakia, 10.5% in Malta and 10.3% in Romania. Spain recorded 5.9%. These figures answer a specific question: what proportion of self-employed people aged 20–64 were aged 20–29? They should not be confused with the 7% share of employed youth who were self-employed in 2022.
Together, the two Eurostat measures show why denominators matter. A youth self-employment rate measures the employment status of young workers. A youth share of the self-employed measures the age composition of the self-employed population. Both are useful for understanding the scale of youth entrepreneurship, but they describe different relationships.
Gender, jobs and sectors
Gender differences were visible in EU self-employment in 2022. About 5% of employed young women aged 20–29 were self-employed, compared with 8% of young men. Young men were 1.6 times as likely as young women to be self-employed. Gender parity was reported in four EU Member States, while young men were more than three times as likely as young women to be self-employed in Croatia, Malta, Slovakia and Sweden. These findings come from the OECD source and its 2022 measure of employed people aged 20–29.
Young self-employed people also contributed jobs for others. In 2022, 17% of self-employed EU youth aged 20–29 employed at least one other person. They were responsible for at least 350,000 additional jobs in the EU. The share employing others ranged from 7% in Czechia to 37% in Germany. About 14% of young self-employed women had employees, compared with 19% of young self-employed men.
Sector differences help explain where self-employment was concentrated. It represented 30% of young workers in EU agriculture, forestry and fishing in 2022, and 16% of young workers in real-estate activities. By occupation, self-employment represented 39% of young skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers and 24% of young EU managers.
These sector and occupation figures are shares of young workers in the specified group, not shares of all young entrepreneurs. They suggest that youth entrepreneurship is connected to the structure of local economies, occupational pathways and access to opportunities, rather than being evenly distributed across the labour market.
Barriers, finance and support
Not all youth entrepreneurship is opportunity-driven. About 17% of young EU early-stage entrepreneurs started out of necessity during 2018–22, compared with 20% of EU early-stage entrepreneurs overall. The youth share reached 34% in Latvia and 31% in Slovakia, while Bulgaria recorded 10%.
Access to finance was centred on personal and conventional sources. In 2022, about 36% of potential EU young entrepreneurs selected their own savings among their top three prospective funding sources. Banks were among the top three for 33%, and family and friends for 21%. National differences were also large: nearly 60% of young people in Malta said they would use their own savings to start a business, compared with 27% in France.
Fear of failure was another major barrier. It prevented 45% of EU youth from starting a business during 2018–22. The figure reached 69% among Greek youth. Confidence in capability was also below the adult comparison: about 40% of EU youth reported having the skills and knowledge needed to start a business, compared with 48% of EU adults.
Policy support was widespread in 2023. Twenty-four EU Member States offered tailored youth entrepreneurship training schemes, while 22 offered tailored and dedicated coaching or mentoring schemes for youth entrepreneurs. Training and mentoring availability does not by itself show how many young people used a scheme or whether it improved business survival, but the coverage indicates that these tools were part of the policy landscape.
For readers focused on leadership, the combined picture is clear: youth entrepreneurship involves motivation, capability, finance, confidence and continuity. The most reliable comparisons keep the measurement date, age range, geography and denominator visible. The OECD’s survey-based and GEM measures cover varying youth definitions—mainly ages 15–30 for preference questions and 18–30 for entrepreneurship stages—while Eurostat uses ages 20–29 for self-employment. The 2018–22 results are pooled-period estimates, and the Eurostat 2025 snapshot measures the share of young people within the self-employed population aged 20–64.