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STUDYING IN SWEDEN

Sweden’s international student numbers bounce back after pandemic

More international students are studying in Sweden than ever before, with enrolments now at higher levels than before the pandemic slump.

Published: 31 October 2023 06:44 CET
a group of smiling students
Thousands of international students travel to Sweden every year. Photo: Cecilia Larsson Lantz/Imagebank.sweden.se

Almost 41,700 international students studied in Sweden during the 2022/23 academic year, new figures from the Swedish Higher Education Authority reveal – an increase of five percent on the year before.

The number of new international students also grew, from almost 23,900 to more than 25,500. That’s an increase of seven percent.

Of the students in Sweden last year, just over 28,700 were so-called “free movers”, meaning that they have organised their own studies and applied independently, rather than moving to Sweden as part of a student exchange programme, and more than 13,000 were exchange students.

The exchange students in particular grew: up 12 percent on the 2021/22 academic year.

Almost 22,900 of foreign students were women, and just over 18,800 were men.

Almost 18,700 came to Sweden from the EU/EEA (including just over 2,900 from the other Nordic countries) and Switzerland, and 16,300 came from non-EU/EEA countries, the data show.

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STATISTICS

More than one in ten foreigners in Sweden don’t have a close friend

Hundreds of thousands of people in Sweden don't have a close friend, a new survey by national number crunchers Statistics Sweden shows.

Published: 23 April 2024 11:05 CEST
More than one in ten foreigners in Sweden don't have a close friend

“It’s statistically proven that between 610,000 and 720,000 people aged 16 and above don’t have a close friend. That corresponds to seven to eight percent of the population at that age,” said Statistics Sweden analyst Thomas Helgeson in a statement.

It’s more than twice as common for foreign-born people not to have a close friend.

Around 13 percent of Sweden’s foreign-born population don’t have a close friend, compared to six percent of native-born Swedes (the figure is roughly the same for the entire group of people born in Sweden, regardless of whether they have foreign or Swedish parents).

There’s a gap between the sexes too. Nine percent of men and six percent of women don’t have a close friend.

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There’s a similar gender gap among foreign-born residents in Sweden, of whom more than 15 percent of men said they don’t have a close friend, compared to almost 11 percent of women.

And finally, the more highly educated people are, the greater the chance of close friendship.

More than 12 percent of people without a Swedish high school diploma said they lacked a close friend, compared to just over five percent of those with a university degree of at least three years.

Have you managed to find friendship in Sweden? We’d like to hear about your experiences. Please fill out the survey below – we may use your answers in a future article on The Local. If the survey doesn’t appear for you, click this link.

 

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