Today's youth are the best educated generation in history even though 130 million are still illiterate, according to a new U.N. report that urges greater investment to ensure universal primary schooling.

The U.N. World Youth Report 2005, which provided a snapshot of the 1.2 billion young people aged 15 to 24, found that more than 500 million youths live on less than $2 a day and a record 88 million who were seeking work are unemployed.

The report, produced by U.N. staff in collaboration with experts and young people, relied on global statistics from recent years provided by the United Nations, the World Bank and other sources. Because of reporting differences in various countries, the figures give a broad overview of the world's youth but are not definitive.

The study highlighted the stark differences in the lives and opportunities of young people in poor African and Asian nations versus those in richer Western countries.

The statistics and trends point to one key message - investments in young people need to be scaled-up to implement the 1995 World Program of Action for Youth and to meet the U.N. Millennium Development Goals. They include cutting extreme poverty by half, ensuring universal primary education, and stemming the AIDS pandemic, all by 2015.

"Investing in young people is especially important to have a growing economy," said Johan Scholvinck of the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs. "You cannot have successful growth if you don't have skilled and active youth in your economy."

The report said investments must focus on the 1.8 billion youngsters currently under the age of 15 because they will be the 15- to 24-year-old generation in 2015, when the Millennium Development Goals are supposed to be reached.

"Since 1995, the number of children completing primary school has continued to increase and four out of five young people ... are now in secondary school," the report said. Higher education is also increasing and it's estimated that some 100 million youth are presently engaged in university-level studies worldwide, it said.

"The current generation of youth is the best-educated so far. However, 113 million children are not in school and 130 million young people are illiterate," the report said.

Despite improvements in education, youth unemployment is at a record high of 88 million, with the highest rates in western Asia, north Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, it said.

"Usually youth are the last to be employed and the first to be fired," said Johan Scholvinck of the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

The most recent figures published by the International Labor Organization, a Geneva-based U.N. agency, indicate that global youth unemployment increased from 11.7 percent in 1993 to an all-time high of 14.4 percent (88 million) in 2003, it said. The unemployment rate took into account only those looking for work and not "those who have voluntarily remained in education and training," the report quoted the ILO as saying.

The report portrayed a generation of young people who are increasingly seeking the bright lights of cities and who are more influenced by the global media than by their own families and communities.

"The epidemic has had a devastating impact on the sexual and reproductive health of young people, as they are particularly vulnerable to infection," the report said.

It also found that globally, young people are reaching adolescence earlier, marrying later, and increasingly engaging in premarital sex, although early pregnancy has declined in many countries.

Their health is also being affected by the "unprecedented increase in the use of synthetic drugs worldwide, mostly in recreational settings," the report said.

"The demand for illicit substances among youth in developing countries has risen to levels typically found in industrialized countries," it added.

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