Among NUTS level 3 regions, they accounted for more than one quarter of the total population in the Danish capital region of Byen København (26.7 percent), as well as in the student cities of Overig Groningen in the Netherlands (25.4 percent) and Heidelberg, Stadtkreis in Germany (25.1 percent).

There were 46 NUTS level 3 regions across the EU where young people accounted for at least one fifth of the total population. These regions were predominantly urban and many university cities and were concentrated across a small number of EU Member States – Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Cyprus, the Netherlands and Sweden. 

Looking into the future and based on Eurostat’s population projections ‘EUROPOP2019’, youths will account for 14.9 percent of the EU population by 2050, a share 1.4 percentage points lower than their share on January 01, 2021, showing some signs of the progressive ageing of the EU population.

According to these projections, the share of youths was projected to remain constant or continue growing in the 16 NUTS 3 regions which had a relatively high share of young persons in 2021. These regions are almost exclusively located in Germany (14 regions), except for Bezirk Verviers — Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft in Belgium, and one of the French overseas departments, Mayotte.