Abstract
Youth exclusion from employment, education and training is a challenge to social sustainability because it limits participation and may reinforce territorial inequalities. This study examines the spatial structure of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) across 208 Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics level 2 (NUTS 2) regions in 21 EU Member States, combining spatial clustering, cluster profiling and spatial regression analysis. Queen contiguity defines the main spatial structure, while a four-nearest-neighbors matrix tests robustness and false discovery rate (FDR) correction addresses multiple local testing. NEET rates display strong positive spatial autocorrelation, with high-NEET clusters concentrated mainly in Southern and South-Eastern Europe and low-NEET clusters predominantly in Northern and Central Europe. Hotspots are characterized by greater poverty risk, lower disposable income, weaker adult educational attainment, lower service-establishment intensity and lower population density. Spatial regression prefers a spatial error model (SEM): poverty risk and low educational attainment are positively associated with NEET, while disposable income is negatively associated and these associations remain stable under the alternative weights matrix. The findings show that youth disengagement has a clear territorial structure, linking inequalities in participation to persistent regional disparities, placing the geography of youth exclusion within the social-sustainability debate.