In Rwanda youth was defined as the population aged 14 to 35 years before 2015. Since then, the new national youth policy defines youth as the population whose age is between 16 and 30 years.
The EICV7 results shows that 24.7% of youth population live in households below the poverty line while only 4.9% of youth population live in households below the extreme poverty line.
Overall, youth population (16-30 years) constitutes 27% of Rwanda’ s total population. The 16-20 years age group represented the largest proportion, accounting for 12% of the national population, followed by 21-25 years age group (8%) and finally 26-30 years age group (7% ) of the total population.
Education
Information on education among youth population presented in this report consists of literacy rates, current school attendance, higher learning education, and technical or vocational education training. Literacy rate for the individuals aged 16 to 30 years stood at 88%, showing a slight increase from 85% recorded in EICV5.
At the provincial level, the City of Kigali demonstrated the highest literacy rate (94%) and the Eastern province showed the lowest (84%) literacy rate. Furthermore, the literacy rate was higher in urban areas (92%) compared to rural areas (85%) indicating persistent geographical disparities in educational attainment.
Economic activity
Overall, the workforce to population ratio among youth population was 68% during the seven days preceding the interview. Workforce participation was relatively higher in the male youth (71%) compared to their female counterparts (65%).
In Rwanda, median weekly hours actual worked by youth population was 35 hours, the mean weekly hours actual worked was 36.9 hours.
Migration
The survey findings reveal that 22.4% of young population migrated internally and outside the country during the five years prior to the survey. Internal migration alone slightly increased to 21.9% in EICV7 from 21.3% recorded in EICV5.
The migration rates were consistently higher among older youth age groups compared to younger age groups. During the five years preceding EICV7 survey, the majority of youth migrated due to family-related reasons (50%) while (40%) moved due to work-related reasons.
Those who migrated due to family-related reason were predominantly aged 16-20 years (60%) whereas, those who migrated due to work-related reason (47%) were primarily aged 26-30 years.
Health
The survey findings indicate that approximately 88% of young people have health insurance. The Northern province demonstrates the highest coverage rate at (93%) exceeding all other provinces. About 89% of females had health insurance compared to their male counterparts (86%).
Community based health insurance (CBHI) was the most common insurance provider with (94%) followed by RSSB insurance with 3.7%. Regarding residential patterns, rural youth show the highest utilization of CBHI insurance (96%) compared to those residing in urban area (88.5%).