The table compares five European countries in terms of their government spending on education and training, and the participation rates of young adults aged 18 to 24 in such programs in 2002. Overall, there was a noticeable disparity between government expenditure and participation rates across the countries, with the most striking gap observed in Poland, where the highest participation rate coincided with the lowest level of expenditure.
Higher spending did not always lead to better outcomes. Slovenia spent the most on education and training (25%), yet its participation rate (40%) was slightly lower than Poland’s, which had the highest participation (44%) despite the lowest expenditure (5%).
Similarly, Romania and the Czech Republic both allocated close to 10% of their budgets, but their participation rates were relatively low, at 23% and 27%, respectively. Hungary, however, showed a more proportional trend, with 13% expenditure corresponding to a 34% participation rate.