Young people in rural or remote areas face particular challenges in their participation, access to education, employment, and youth services, compounded by digital and gender divides.

Improving the conditions of young people living in rural areas by enabling them to fulfil their potential is a clear priority of the Council of Europe, which is preparing a Recommendation on rural youth to be adopted by the Committee of Ministers in late 2024, and of the European Commission, through the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027, the EU Youth Goal #6 Moving Rural Youth Forward, the Council Conclusions on raising opportunities for young people in rural and remote areas, and the Inclusion and Diversity Framework of Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps.

In that context, and building on previous research of the Youth Partnership, in particular Young people in rural areas: diverse, ignored and unfulfilled (2021), illustration, and podcast episode (2021) as well as Briefing 5: COVID-19 impact on young people in rural areas not in employment, education or training (2021) and Coyote youth work magazine on rural youth (issue 30), the Youth Partnership is working on the study to explore how young people (aged 18-30) living in rural areas access opportunities, and provide guidance for policy makers on how to expand opportunities.

This study foresees a systematic analysis of the current and past (2018-2024) situation of rural youth aged 18-30, relevant policies and youth work services across a selected number of the Council of Europe member countries to inform policy-making at European, national and regional levels. The study combines qualitative and quantitative methods (survey and focus groups). It focuses on rural youth’s experiences and needs in education, employment, participation, social support, spatial mobilities and access to leisure, culture and sports.

While the policies and services analyses will focus on Spain, Romania, Armenia, Estonia, and Ireland, the assessment of rural youth perspectives includes a larger pool of Council of Europe member States. Therefore, the survey is available in: Albanian, Armenian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Dutch, English, Estonian, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Spanish and Turkish.

The survey is now open until 31 January 2025 to all young people aged 18 to 30 years living in rural areas in one of the Council of Europe’s member countries.

*The translation of this survey in different languages was done with the use of Google Translator, followed by the quality check conducted by the correspondents of the European Knowledge Centre for Youth Policy (EKCYP).