- Tunisia’s youth (aged 18-35) are more educated than older generations. More than three-quarters (78%) of young Tunisians have attained at least secondary education, including 33% with post-secondary qualifications.
- But youth are also more likely to be unemployed. Nearly three in 10 young Tunisians (29%) say they are not employed and are actively looking for work, compared to 14%-25% of middle-aged respondents.
- In addition to general economic conditions, young Tunisians most often cite an unwillingness to take certain jobs, such as those in agriculture, and a lack of experience required by employers as key barriers to youth employment.
- Given their choice of employment, nearly two-thirds (65%) of youth say they would start their own business, while one-quarter (25%) would prefer public-sector work.
- If the government were to increase spending to support young people, youth would prioritise job creation (58%) above all else.
- Young people offer mixed evaluations of the government’s performance on their top priorities. More than half (52%) approve of the government’s efforts to fight corruption, but fewer praise its performance on reducing crime (40%), addressing educational needs (40%), and improving basic health services (34%). Only 13% are satisfied with the government’s efforts to create jobs.
- Even so, these assessments reflect notable improvements on most key priorities since 2022.
- Young Tunisians express mixed views about the country’s overall direction and economic conditions. A majority (57%) believe the country is moving “in the wrong direction,” and only a small minority (16%) describe the national economy as “fairly good” or “very good,” though 35% rate their personal living conditions positively.
- One-quarter (25%) of youth say the economy has improved over the previous year, while a larger share (42%) believe it has worsened. But looking ahead, nearly two-thirds (65%) expect economic conditions to improve over the next 12 months.
- These assessments reflect considerable fluctuation over the past decade, including declines between 2015 and 2022 followed by a sharp rebound in optimism by 2024.
- Nearly two-thirds (65%) of youth say they have considered emigrating, mostly in search of better job opportunities. The share of youth who have thought “a lot” about emigration has increased sharply since 2018, rising from 38% to 51%.
Tunisia is a country of about 12 million people, with youth aged 15-29 accounting for 29% of the population and 43% of the working-age population (World Bank, 2025; Center of Arab Women for Training and Research, 2016). In 2011, deep-seated economic challenges, persistent inequality, limited job creation, and high youth unemployment generated widespread social grievances that culminated in the Jasmine Revolution, part of the broader Arab Spring uprisings (Saidin, 2018). Although the revolution initially brought a measure of political stabilisation, the post-revolutionary period has been characterised by declining state capacity and weak economic growth (Fethi, 2022).
Youth unemployment, in particular, has remained acute. The youth unemployment rate increased from about 25% in the 1990s to about 35% in the early 2010s (Grundke & Cassimon, 2022). By 2018, more than 85% of the unemployed population was under age 35, highlighting the persistent structural barriers facing young Tunisians in the labour market (Grundke & Cassimon, 2022). These barriers include low domestic investment, corruption, cronyism, and regional inequalities that disproportionately affect youth in interior regions and young women, as well as high unemployment among university graduates following the decline of public-sector absorption (Fethi, 2022).
In response, Tunisia has pursued reforms targeting education, vocational training, and employment, including the Strategic Plan for Higher Education and Scientific Research (2015- 2025) and the Vocational Training Reform Strategy (2014-2018). But progress has been uneven due to leadership turnover and the absence of a unified national youth employment strategy (United States Agency for International Development, 2024; Center of Arab Women for Training and Research, 2016). Collaborative initiatives supported by international partners, such as the United Nations Development Programme’s (2025) Green Growth and Jobs Accelerator, have sought to promote entrepreneurship, green growth, and youth inclusion, even as concerns persist about democratic backsliding in light of President Kais Saied’s consolidation of power since 2021 (Reuters, 2025).
This dispatch reports on a survey module included in the Afrobarometer Round 10 questionnaire to explore the experiences and perspectives of Tunisian youth on key issues affecting their lives.
Findings show that while young Tunisians are more educated than their elders, they are also more likely to be unemployed. In their view, key obstacles to employment include an unwillingness to take certain jobs, a lack of work experience, and a mismatch between educational qualifications and job requirements. Most young people see the government as failing on job creation, which they identify as the most important problem facing their country.
Most young Tunisians believe the country is heading “in the wrong direction,” and only minorities rate the national economy and their personal living conditions as fairly or very good. Despite these negative assessments of current conditions, a large majority are optimistic that the economy will improve in the near future.
At the same time, more than half say they have thought “a lot” about emigrating, primarily in search of better job opportunities.
