To deal with the lack of job opportunities, many young Europeans are considering emigration as a real possibility. And the more qualified they are, the more they are willing to leave. 

That is the finding of the latest Eurostat survey, which indicates that almost half of jobless young people in the EU, aged between 20 and 34, would be prepared to relocate to find work, either within their national borders (21 percent), in another EU country (12 percent), or beyond (17 percent).

Leading the countries with the highest proportion of young people prepared to emigrate are Portugal (71 percent), Sweden (66 percent) and Spain (64 percent). Regarding the young people who are set on emigrating to another EU country, countries in the Baltic and the Balkans occupy the top spots in the ranking (26 percent in Estonia and Croatia, 25 percent in Slovenia). Bulgaria and Slovakia, meanwhile, are the countries with the most young people willing to live in another EU country rather than move within their own country (23 percent against 12 percent, and 23 percent against 14 percent respectively).

Young people’s level of education is an important factor to take into consideration when evaluating their willingness to relocate. To this end, almost 23 percent of young Europeans with a higher-education qualification would be prepared to change their place of work within their own country, against 20 percent of young people who completed a medium level of studies and 21 percent with a low level of studies. This gap grows once you consider leaving for another European country: 16 percent of those who completed a higher level of education would be ready to emigrate, against 11 percent with a medium level of education and 10 percent with a basic education.