Rabat- Moroccan youth have been ranked 20th in the Global Youth Well-being Index, released on Friday by the International Youth Foundation and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
The study, which included 30 countries representing nearly 70% of the world’s youth population aged 10-24, has ranked Morocco in the 20th place, ahead of Ghana, the Philippines and South Africa.
The index uses a set of 40 indicators that address the overall national environment, youth-specific outcomes, and youths' outlook and satisfaction levels across six interconnected aspects of their lives (domains): citizen participation, economic opportunity, education, health, information and communications technology, and safety and security.
According to the Global Youth Well-being Index, “Of the four countries in the Middle East-North Africa region, Morocco is third.”
Among the eight countries in the lower-middle income bracket, Morocco sits third behind Vietnam and Indonesia.
In Morocco, where young people represent 28% of the total population, the average domain scores indicate youth are more optimistic in citizen participation (19), health (13) and safety and security (11), while they are less optimistic in education (27) and economic opportunities (26).
Despite doing relatively well in three out of the six domains, the study says Morocco achieves bottom tier rankings in the three remaining domains.
Overall, the Australian youth have been ranked the happiest in the world, followed by Sweden, South Korea, the United Kingdom and Germany, while the U.S., whose youth, ranked 6th.
The study authors said they hope to help stakeholders make sense of disparate, often conflicting data on “learning, livelihoods, community or political engagement, health, physical safety, and other aspects of youth well-being.”
Edited by Jessica Rohan