The pandemic caused more young Dominicans to become “ninis”

Santo Domingo, DR

While the Dominican Republic was struggling to reduce the number of young “ninis,” those who neither study nor work, the pandemic caused them to increase significantly.

The total number of these young people between 2013 and 2019 went up and down from one year to the next, but the difference did not remain marked.

For example, according to statistics from the Central Bank’s National Labor Force Survey (ENFT), in 2013, there were 403,230 “ninis,” of which 150,692 were men and 252,538 were women.

In 2014 this figure dropped to 372,427 young people who were neither studying nor working, 124,635 men, and 247,792.

In 2015, the number of “ninis” rose again. In that year, the figure reached 403,667 young people, and in 2016, it dropped again to 377,809.

In 2017, the figure increased by 29.22% compared to 2016, reaching 488,223 “ninis.” In 2018, it grew to 475,169, and a year later, only four young people became “ninis,” so there was a total of 475,173 in the country.

However, with the pandemic, this situation worsened. When comparing 2020 with the previous year, the “ninis” increased 44.24%, with a total of 685,615 young people between the ages of 15 and 24 who were neither studying nor working.

Of these, 281,337 were men, and 404,278 were women, with the number of nini girls increasing much more.