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The Nordic island that sits high above most of Europe also seems to be a place where younger people who opt for education can take their sweet time about it.
The country is the only place in the OECD group of nations where the average age of people leaving tertiary education is over 30.
The UK by contrast has some of the developed world’s youngest university leavers, with only Belgian graduates below them.
This anomaly does not seem to be a case of young Icelanders not going to university. In 2012, 38.4% of 25-34 year olds had completed tertiary education which is only a little bit below the OECD average of 39.2%.
The unemployment rate of those who have completed tertiary education is also lower than most of the OECD grouping so those that have completed their degrees are extremely likely to be employed.
Contrast that to Italy where the unemployment rate of those who have completed tertiary education is more than twice the rate of Iceland. In that country almost half of 25-34 year olds are still living with their parents while in Iceland it’s around one in ten.
Share of young people living with their parents: Denmark 1.8% France 11.5% UK 14.4% Italy 46.6% (via @miroslavhajnos) pic.twitter.com/BrGnVzPT7A
— Alberto Nardelli (@AlbertoNardelli) July 16, 2014
What can we take from all this? Although perennial students can often cause angry workers to chastise them with “Why don’t you get a real job?” It seems that the Icelandic response could be: “We probably will...eventually.”
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