Italy narrows overall school dropout gap but foreign-student rates remain high

On May 8, 2026, the education minister declared that Italy achieved a historic milestone by reducing its overall school dropout rate to below the EU average. This achievement applies primarily to students with Italian citizenship, positioning the country among the continent's better performers. In contrast, pupils with foreign citizenship continue to abandon school at a much higher rate, with the disparity reaching nearly twenty percentage points.

The phenomenon is most acute in southern regions, where cities such as Catania, Bari, Cagliari, Naples, Palermo and Messina record the highest exit rates among non-Italian students. More favorable figures appear in Rome, Bologna, Milan and Turin, though foreign-student dropout still exceeds one-third of the total. Additionally, foreign learners show higher rates of incomplete competency acquisition and lag behind Italian peers in language test scores, while performing better in English assessments.