VALLETTA, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union (EU), said on Friday that in 2018, Malta had the second highest rate of early school leavers among the EU member states.

According to Eurostat, early school leavers are those aged between 18 and 24 with at most lower secondary education and who are not in further education or training.

In 2018, the proportion of early leavers from education and training in the EU was 15.3 percent. The respective rate in Malta was 17.5 percent, which ranked the country after Spain.

Compared with 2006, the share of early school leavers decreased by 14.7 percent.

The target for Malta under the Europe 2020 strategy is to reduce the rate of early school leavers to 10 percent.