There are currently over four million opportunity youth in the United States, and nearly one million of them live in communities supported by the Aspen Institute’s Opportunity Youth Forum (OYF). Approximately one in nine young people in OYF communities are ‘opportunity youth:’  16-24 year olds who are currently not engaged in education and not working.

Nine hundred OYF partner organizations are engaged with over 40 youth-focused local place-based partnerships across the U.S. to reconnect opportunity youth and young adults with education, workforce, and other supports to help create thriving lives for young people, and to prevent millions more from such disconnection. While the number of opportunity youth edged up slightly in our latest year of data, OYF communities are showing strong, impressive progress in its 10 year goal to reduce youth disconnection in OYF communities by 50%, or 500,000 young people. Over our first three years, that number has gone down by 160,000, putting us on track to meet the goal.

While the slight increase in youth disconnection in OYF communities between 2023 and 2024 is a concern, there are several notable factors that contributed to this increase, including:

1. National youth unemployment data, from 2023 to 2024, shows a 1% increase in youth unemployment, or about 500,000 more unemployed youth across the US. It is probable that this trend is impacting OYF communities as well.

2. The graduating class of 2024 includes many young people whose high school and/or college attendance were disrupted by COVID-19. The recent data likely reflects the long-term effects of the school closures, transition to remote learning, and other shifts that occurred during the pandemic.

This information, combined with our new analyses of the cost-benefits of reducing youth disconnection, show the continued need to support efforts to prevent disconnection, and support meaningful reconnection whenever and wherever possible. This new analysis shows that in 2024, the reconnection of opportunity youth across OYF communities to education or employment saved $1.2 billion in one year; and that conversely, the lifetime costs of not helping the 1 million OY in OYF communities is nearly $1 trillion.

For more information, see our 2024 OYF Common Measures Infographic.

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