| RAND– The newsletter for policy people Oct. 2, 2025 |
About one in seven people ages 18 to 24 in the United States are disconnected, meaning they are not engaging in school, training, or work. That’s according to a new RAND paper that explores what the evidence says—and doesn’t say—about this phenomenon.
Disconnection has enormous costs for individuals and for society. In the short term, disconnected youth earn about $12,000 less per year than their peers. And over the long term, they are unlikely to be on a path toward economic prosperity.
Who is disconnected? Here are some of the takeaways:
- Overall, young men are more likely to be disconnected than young women.
- But other factors—such as family status, race/ethnicity, and disability status—generally are more important than sex in explaining rates of disconnection.
- Community factors are also important. For example, rates are higher in areas where fewer adult men are employed.
- Young veterans, especially female veterans, have high rates of disconnection.
- Most disconnected youth have at least a high school degree. This suggests that education alone isn’t enough to protect young people from disconnection.
So, what might help disconnected youth secure a brighter future? There is no one-size-fits-all solution, the authors write. Addressing this issue will likely require multiple carefully designed policies and programs.