Participation does not decline steadily from 16 to 21 — it falls off a cliff at 18
Between 17 and 18, the share of young people in England in education or an apprenticeship drops by more than a quarter. A second, smaller fall follows at 21.
England · single year of age · academic age · national population · calendar year 2024 · DfE Participation 16–21
What the data show
Participation is near-universal at 16, at 90.8%, and still high at 17, at 84.9%. At 18 it is 58.3%. That is a fall of 26.6 percentage points in a single year of age – far larger than any other step in the range.
After 18 the decline is gentle: 56.0% at 19 and 53.9% at 20, falls of about two points a year. Then participation drops again to 39.1% at 21, a fall of 14.8 points.
The same shape appears in the state-sector-at-age-15 cohort, at consistently lower levels, and it has been the shape of the age profile in every year since 2015.
Possible explanations
These are possibilities, not findings. Nothing in this release establishes why the pattern above exists.
- The end of compulsory participation is the obvious candidate for the fall at 18: young people in England must stay in education or training until 18, and the requirement stops there.
- The fall at 21 coincides with the point at which a three-year degree started at 18 would finish, and higher education makes up the large majority of participation at 19 and 20.
- Some of the change may be composition rather than behaviour – the measure counts education and apprenticeships only, so young people moving into work without training leave the numerator.
What the data cannot tell us
Why it matters
Post-16 policy, careers guidance and college planning all tend to be organised around the 16–18 phase. The data suggest the sharpest change in what young people are doing happens at the very end of that phase, not during it.
Open the interactive view behind this chart, where every figure carries its source, population and age definition.
Sources and methodology
Department for Education, Participation in education, training and employment age 16 to 21, 2025 release, calendar year series 2015–2025. England, national population, academic age (age at 31 August at the start of the academic year). Percentages are as published by DfE; differences between two rates are given as percentage-point differences. Where DfE has not published a figure, none is shown.