YOUTH AS A SOCIО-DEMOGRAPHIC GROUP

Abstract

The article presents the characteristics of youth as a socio-demographic group, and emphasizes the lack of clear justification, as it varies depending on place, age, country. Representatives of various scientific currents see their potential in young people: political scientists consider it as an innovative resource for the country's development, sociologists – as a socio-cultural community, psychologists – as a group with its own psychophysical features of adulthood. Each science is characterized by interaction with other sciences, theoretical and methodological addition of concepts, and joint use of empirical research data. Peculiarities of the social composition of the young generation are determined by the presence of a significant proportion of young people, who do not have their own social status in the full sense; social characteristics of different groups of young people are determined by direct inclusion in mass movements. Youth as a socio-demographic group (ages 14–35) makes up a third (27%) of the total population of Ukraine. At the same time, the share of young people in the total population has been declining over the past five years. Such demographic dynamics negatively affect the reproduction of the population as a whole and limit positive changes in the future. In modern European society among the forms of youth participation are volunteer work; participation in various forms of non-formal education; peer-to-peer learning; active participation in the activities of youth centers, clubs and performance of duties in them; consultations; different levels of participation of young people in projects and activities; youth councils, parliaments, forums. The analysis of domestic youth activity showed the use of the following forms of youth participation: creation of a youth center; introduction of a system of measures for the development of vocational education and youth employment; training of specialists under the program «Youth Worker»; training of coordinators of student labor centers under the British Council's Active Citizens Program; creation of youth development platforms; participation in the Erasmus+ program; implementation of the program of national-patriotic education and volunteer movement.