Young people in Greece face significant challenges as they try to achieve personal and financial independence, according to a recent OECD report, despite the country’s economic growth consistently outperforming the eurozone average in recent years. Greece’s economy grew by 2.1% in 2025, compared with 1.3% for the eurozone.
The employment rate among young people aged 15–29 increased from 26% in 2013 to 36% in 2025, while youth unemployment fell from a peak of 48.7% in 2013 to 16.5% in 2025.
However, youth employment in Greece remains well below the OECD and EU averages, which stood at 55% and 50%, respectively, in 2025. This puts Greece second from the bottom in the OECD ranking, ahead of only Italy.
Youth unemployment in Greece also remained the third highest among OECD countries, after Spain and Sweden, at 16.5% in 2025.
That figure is significantly higher than the OECD average of 8.9% and the EU average of 11.7%. Unemployment rates are high across all younger age groups and among the working-age population as a whole.
OECD: Young workers’ pay hits rock bottom
Youth unemployment in Greece remains high regardless of educational attainment. Among 25–34-year-olds with a tertiary education degree, the unemployment rate reached 12.3% in Greece in 2024 — the highest rate among OECD countries and 2.4 times the OECD average for this group.
Young workers in Greece also have the lowest monthly wages compared with their counterparts in other European OECD countries.
More specifically, workers under 30 in Greece earn, on average, 40% less than young workers in other EU and OECD countries, when wages are adjusted for purchasing power to ensure comparability.
This wage disparity is characteristic of the broader Greek workforce, where average earnings are 45% lower than in other European OECD countries.
Housing remains a major hurdle for young people
At the same time, housing remains a persistent source of concern for young people in Greece. According to the OECD’s 2024 Risks That Matter survey, around 70% of young people in Greece aged 18–24 expressed concern about securing adequate housing over the following year. That is the fifth-highest share among OECD countries and well above the OECD average of 61%.
Leaving the parental home and buying a first home also remain difficult for many young Greeks.
Across the OECD, Greece has one of the highest shares of young people aged 20–29 living with their parents, at 74%. It ranks behind South Korea, Italy, Spain and the Slovak Republic.
In addition, the average age at which young people leave their parents’ home is 30.9 years, significantly higher than the EU-OECD average of 26.2 years.
The OECD data on housing costs and the large share of income they consume helps shed light on the reasons behind this situation.
More specifically, young people in Greece have to devote a large portion of their income to housing costs, reflecting both high housing costs and low wages.
On average, a Greek between the ages of 18 and 29 spends more than 60% of their income on housing, a figure that is almost twice the EU average.
The problem is even more pronounced in cities, where nearly eight out of 10 young Greeks spend more than 40% of their disposable income on housing. As a result, they are considered to be overburdened by housing costs.
