Statistics Sweden

 Department of social statistics and analysis

Unit for labour market and education

Statistics Sweden
SE-701 89 Örebro
Sweden

The statistics of the Swedish Education System is used for follow up, evaluate and improve the quality and outcome in the school system.

Further information on data flagged ‘d’ in the database is available to download from the Annex of the Metadata page for Education administrative data from 2013 onwards (ISCED 2011):

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/metadata/en/educ_uoe_enr_esms.htm

International Standard Classification of Education 2011 (ISCED 2011)

Education, number of students, teachers and spending

Age, type of institution, grade, level of education

Children in early childhood education and care, students, teachers, school management personnel, education expenditure

Children, students, personnel and expenditure within the Swedish educational system

Sweden

School year 2019/2020

Not available.

Enrolment (national and regional level)
The data on enrolments are collected from sources of which the Swedish National Agency for Education for ISCED 0-3, the Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education for ISCED 4-5 and the Swedish Higher Education Authority for ISCED 5-6 are responsible. See Annex 2 - ISCED Mapping for schoolyear 2020/2021 (UOE2022) – Sweden for type of source (Survey / Register / Estimation / Other) and detailed variables.

Entrants
The data on entrants are collected from the Swedish National Agency for Education for ISCED 0-3, the Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education for ISCED 4-5 and the Swedish Higher Education Authority for ISCED 5-6

Personnel
The data on personnel are collected from the Swedish National Agency for Education and the Swedish Higher Education Authority.

Foreign languages learning
The data on foreign languages learning are collected from the pupils register of which the Swedish National Agency for Education is responsible.

Graduates
The data on graduates are collected from pupils registers of which the Swedish National Agency for Education, the Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education  and the Swedish Higher Education Authority are responsible.

Finance
The data on Education Expenditure are compiled from several registers, surveys and administrative sources of which the Swedish National Agency for Education, the Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education, the Swedish Higher Education Authority, the Swedish Board of Student Finance, Municipalities´ accounts and the Sweden´s municipalities and county councils are responsible.

Annual.

Information on number of children in early childhood education and care, students and teachers is gathered through online surveys and exports of administrative data. Information on expenditure is collected from administrative registers.

Data are validated through automatic control functions in the data collection system and also manually revised by experts.

Operations performed on data to derive new information according to a given set of rules

Weighting methods
Typically the number of students is used as base for estimations of costs and number of staff members per student.
True distribution according to source registers are used for differing theoretical ages.
Depending on school form the number of credits, points, weeks, days or hours are used as conversion factors from part-time to full-time equivalent (FTE) data.

Estimations methods used in the UOE questionnaires
Mainly redistribution proportionally by number of students at each level or school form. For instance:
- personell and finance in preprimary are distributed proportionally by the number of children in ISCED 01 and ISCED 02.
- the distribution of teachers ISCED 3 on General and Vocational is proportional to the number of students in each school form. 

Not applicable.

There are built-in controls in the system to prevent logical errors. Schools get feedback in order to correct errors before publishing.

The statistics are based on education census where each is considered to be of good quality with no known errors.

The most important users are the Swedish National Agency for Education (National Monitoring System and Official Statistics), Forecasting Institute of Statistics Sweden, Ministry of Education, Swedish Higher Education Authority, school units, municipalities and other school heads, companies, researchers and media.

The user council of the Swedish official statistics of population, demography and education has influence on the relevance of education statistics in general.

Graduates
There is no graduation in the system for adult education.
At ISCED 8 there is an intermediate licentiate degree after two years. These are included in graduates and educational attainment. Their share of ISCED 8 graduates is about 15 % for the academic year 2019/20.
Homecoming nationals are not included (as reqested in UOE manual). They can not be distinguished in our definition of mobile students. (They are also very few).

Vocational training
Vocational and technical training programs in enterprises are included in the UOE data collection and the school based component is assessed through the design of program and requirement for funding.

Programs shorter than one semester (or Implementation of the semester rule)
Programs of shorter duration than one semester, full time equivalent duration as defined nationally, exist and their duration (shorter than one semester) is known. For tertiary education, courses shorter than one term are included and assumed to be part of a longer program. For ISCED 4, programs shorter than 18 weeks are excluded.

Early childhood education programs
Early childhood educational development programs (ISCED2011 level 01) exist in Sweden and these programs are included in the UOE data collection.
Home-based programs are not covered at ISCED 0-Early childhood education and are excluded from the UOE data collection.

Special education needs (SNE) programs
Students in special need education programs are included in the data provided on enrolments, entrants, graduates and regional data.

Adult education programs and "continuing education"

Adult education programs are included in the data and the national definition of “adult” or “continuing” education does fully comply with the category as defined by the UOE manual. Programs that classifies as "non-formal” are excluded from the data.

Students enrolled in educational institutions organized by ministries other than ministry of education
Does not exist.

Distance learning / e-learning programs
Distance learning programs data are reported in the UOE questionnaires. However, national distance learners in programs organised by institutions outside Sweden are excluded.

Students participating in exchange programs (credit mobile students)
Students in short term postings (i.e. exchange programs (credit mobility)) are excluded from the population of students in the data collection. Except in the CREDMOB tables.

Foreign languages learning
Students with SNE (Special Needs Education) enrolled in special schools are excluded from the data on foreign languages.
For students in initial upper secondary education (gymnasieskolan) data on languages is available for students graduating with a degree or final grade or with a leaving certificate of 2500 points (studiebevis). Students who did not manage to get an exam or leaving certificate are excluded.

Orientation of program in tertiary education
Advanced vocational programs at ISCED 5 are coded as vocational. Programs in universities are coded as "general" for ISCED 5 and "Unspecified" for levels 6-7

Not available.

The overall assessment is that the statistics published are of good quality with no known errors.

The statistics are based on education census and are therefore not affected by any selection uncertainty.

Not applicable.

see below

Programs of shorter duration than one semester

Programs of shorter duration than one semester, full time equivalent duration as defined nationally, exist and their duration (shorter than one semester) is known. For tertiary education, courses shorter than one term are included and assumed to be part of a longer program. For ISCED 4, programs shorter than 18 weeks are excluded.

Domestic educational activities
Not all of Sweden’s domestic educational activities are reported in the UOE data collection. It depends if Swedish schools abroad should be regarded as "domestic education". There are schools abroad providing formal regular education in ISCED 02, 1, 2 and 3.  These are not included in the UOE data collection.

Enrolments
Students in ISCED 6 and 7 are not classified by orientation (academic/vocational). All are reported as "unspecified".
Homecoming students are not included in ENRL 5 and ENRL 6 (as requested in UOE manual). They can not be distinguished, in our definition of mobile students. (They are also very few).

Entrants
All entrants to individually designed (module) programs in higher education are coded as entrants to ISCED 6.

Foreign languages learning
At ISCED 3 data are available only for the last year of the program. The adult education system is not included.
It is not possible to report languages by age, for ISCED 1, 2 or 3.
Data about subjects studied are collected only after the last year in the program. Including data about language courses in the adult education system would result in a mix that wouldn't make any sense in analysis.
Graduates from IB colleges are excluded since no data are available.

Personnel
Data on personnel for Advanced Vocational Training (YH), Folk High School (Folkhögskola) or for Arts and Cultures Courses (KKV) are not available.
For ISCED 0 the distinction between different personnel categories (teachers, teacher aides) is classified by educational attainment. Only personnel with a degree from a pre-school teacher program are classified as teachers, all other personnel is classified as teacher aides.
For pre-school classes (ISCED 0), management personnel is included in ISCED 1.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Class size is a freetext variable in our national data collection and the quality is not guaranteed. Since class size is administrative data there is no guarantee it matches the actual number of students in the class room.

In some of the surveys that constitute the basis for statistics, units might be missing.

School units report students without a Swedish social security number or with protected identity by creating a temporary social security number not found elsewhere. This means that background variables such as country of birth, residence, first immigration date and education level are missing for these students.

None of these errors are considered to significantly affect the reliability of official statistics.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

There is no indication that there are any errors from the processing phase that can significally affect the statistics.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not available.

Not available

Not available.

Information related to the latest reference year (academic year t-t+1, or financial year t)

Enrolment in higher education
Data collection start date: 1 February year t+1 (ref autumn term year t)
15 August year t+1 (ref spring term year t+1)
Data collection end date: The source is administrative registers, continuously updated, therefore no real end date. 
Dissemination/publication in your country: October year t+1 (ref academic year t-t+1)
Additional comments on deadlines and timeliness: Start date could be earlier for certain institutions.

Graduates from higher education
Data collection start date: 15 February year t+1 (ref autumn term year t)
15 September year t+1 (ref spring term year t+1)
Data collection end date: The source is administrative registers, continuously updated, therefore no real end date. 
Dissemination/publication in your country: November year t+1 (ref academic year t-t+1)
Additional comments on deadlines and timeliness: Start date could be earlier for certain institutions.

Personnel higher education
Data collection start date: September year t (ref October year t)
Data collection end date: February year t+1
Post-collection phase start date: March year t+1
Post-collection phase end date: April year t+1
Dissemination/publication in your country: April year t+1

Expenditure higher education
Data collection start date: November year t (ref financial year t)
Data collection end date: February year t+1
Post-collection phase start date: March year t+1
Post-collection phase end date: April year t+1
Dissemination/publication in your country: April year t+1
Additional comments on deadlines and timeliness: Statistics produced by the Swedish Higher Education Authority

Enrolment and personnel ISCED 0-2
Data collection start date: October year t (ref 15 October year t)
Data collection end date:  January year t+1
Post-collection phase start date: February year t+1
Post-collection phase end date:  March year t+1
Dissemination/publication in your country: March/April year t+1

Enrolment and personnel ISCED 3-4
Data collection start date: In early November year t, the CSN (Authority for student aid) provides a record of all students enrolled in secondary school by October 15.
Data collection end date: There is no data collection period; the register is continuously updated.
Post-collection phase start date: November year t
Post-collection phase end date: December year t
Dissemination/publication in your country: March year t+1

Educational expenditure ISCED 0-4
Data collection start date:  March year t+1 (ref financial year t)
Data collection end date:  May year t+1
Post-collection phase start date:  June year t+1
Post-collection phase end date: August year t+1
Dissemination/publication in your country: September year t+1

Secondary education for adults
Additional comments on deadlines and timeliness: What we can see is whether the student has been enrolled at some point during the year.

Not available.

Not available.

see below

Submission dates for the latest reference year (academic year t-t+1, or financial year t)

Deadline for transmission of data: 30 September t+2
Enrolments: 30 September of t+2
Entrants: 30 September of t+2
Personnel: 30 September of t+2
Foreign languages learning: 30 September of t+2
Regional enrolments: 30 September of t+2
Class: 30 September of t+2

Deadline for transmission of data: 30 November of t+2
Graduates: 29 November of t+2
Education expenditure: 29 November of t+2
Credit mobility: 29 November of t+2

Different periods of reference 

Swedish for immigrants and primary and secondary adult education (komvux) are reported per calendar year. All other programs by school/academic year

Foreign languages learning
For students in initial upper secondary education (gymnasieskolan) data for students graduating with a degree (or leaving certificate / studiebevis) are reported. Those who "failed" are excluded; no language data.

Finance
Expenditure for teaching/academic hospitals is not covered
Expenditure at the pre-primary level: the childcare component is integrated and included
Cost of a dual-system programme to the employer.: No, only the subsidy from the authorities is reported
Expenditure for contributions on pension schemes: Reported by the employer. Private pensions out of scope as included in salary cost.
Households' payments for private tutoring is not covered
Student living costs: Student loans typically cover their living costs

Not applicable.

Enrolments

The Swedish UOE data collection has been changed in methodology from UOE 2020 (18/19) for the questionnaires of ENRL, REGIO, ENTR, GRAD and LANG, which affects different measures and ISCED levels in different ways. The measures of number of full-time and part-time students has been pro-rated in a more accurate way. 

From UOE 2017 (15/16), all students in upper secondary vocational education is classified at level 353. This is due to the upper secondary reform implemented in 2011 the upper secondary vocational programmes. We do not know if the students will end up with or without access to tertiary during the programme so 354 is included in 353.

Students (ISCED 1 and 2) in confessional schools have up till UOE 2015 been reported under public. From UOE 2016 confessional schools are reported as private.

UOE 2016 was the last time we reported Supplementary education programs for adults (KU). These pgms were at ISCED 4 and had about 5 000 students enrolled school year 14/15 and 0 students in 15/16. The programs are replaced by "Arts and Cultural Education" in UOE 2018.
In UOE 2014, students in introductory pgms (ISCED 3) were reported as "partial completion" of ISCED 3. In UOE 2015 and onwards they have instead been moved to the category "insufficient for level completion". 
In addition, students in introductory/preparatory programmes were previously all reported as "vocational". In UOE 2016 and onwards some are reported as "general"; this concerns for instance language introduction for immigrant students.

Personnel

For ISCED 0 the distinction between different personnel categories (teachers, teacher aides) is classified by educational attainment from UOE 2020 (18/19). Only personnel with a degree from a pre-school teacher program (ISCED 6) are classified as teachers, all other personnel is classified as teacher aides. In previous years no distinction was made between teachers and teachers aides, all reported as teachers. 
Personnel data for ISCED 0 is from UOE 2016 available by age and full/part time (which was not the case in previous years).
For ISCED 1 and above, there is a change in the national data collection/definition of "other pedagogic personnell", resulting in higher numbers of teching aids from UOE 2015 and forward.

Foreign languages learning
ISCED 3 See change under Graduates. The population in the language tables corresponds to those graduating.
Students who did not manage to get an exam or leaving certifiacte ("studiebevis") are excluded.
Before UOE 2015, the number of students in grades 1-3 studying English has been based on an estimate from 2004. From UOE 2015, we have been able to update the estimate, using figures from 2013.
The number of students in ISCED1 and ISCED2 studying “Other modern languages” also differ from UOE 2015 and onwards. This is due to miscalculations in previous years where “other alternatives to foreign languages” (such as native language) has been added to the sum.

Graduates

The Swedish UOE data collection has been changed in methodology from UOE 2020 (18/19).Graduates are counted in the same way as previous years but checks between all school forms within each ISCED level are introduced, not only tertiary.

From the introduction of the new upper secondary reform (GY11) in reference year 13/14, there is a graduation (examen) from upper secondary. Previously, those with a "final grade" were regarded sa "graduates". In the new system, it's more difficult to "graduate" and the numbers have gone down gradually the last years. Further, graduates include (a) those with exam and (b) those with leaving certificate of at least 2500 credits (studiebevis). The latter group is regarded as "partial completion".

Education expenditure
Improvements in reporting quality have been made in 2017 and onwards. The coding process in the FIN questionnaire has been reviewed and improved.
Distribution at central, regional and local level i FIN1-SOURCE. Expenditure have previous years been reported at Central level (C1, C1 and C5a). Following the recommendations of the Compliance Reports from Eurostat, from UOE 2017 we report all exp at ISCED 0-3 on Local level, rows L1, L2 and L5a.
For ISCED 5-8 the main part of the (non-central government) funding comes from regional government. Previously, we have reported all funding at regional level and indicated that data for local level were included in regional level. From UOE 2017 we have split between regional and local funding by making estimations for the local level.
The method for evaluating the student’s enrolments has been changed. In UOE 2018 each semester is calculated separately and then added together to a calendar year, resulting in a more complete picture of their studies. This results in a higher number of full-time equivalents than previously, which is more accurate.
The method for dividing the costs into General / Vocational for upper secondary school (ISCED 3) has been changed. The new model provides a significantly lower proportion of costs allocated to Vocational education ISCED 3, than in previous years' international reporting and accounting. This results in a trend break.

New school forms in UOE 2018
Two new school forms was added in the UOE 2018. Students in Folk high school (Folkhögskola) are added in enrolments, entrants and regional enrolment questionnaires. Students in Arts and Culture courses (KKV) are added in enrolments, entrants, regional enrolments and graduates questionnaires.

Not available.

Not applicable

Not available.

Efforts have been made in order to better aligne with the National accounts.

Not available.

Not available.

Not available.

Not available.

Not available.

Not available.

Not available.

Not available.

Not available.

Not available.

Not available.

Approximation: 30 days of supervising, coordinating and summing up the various collections from different school forms, including respodning to follow up questions from UOE team and making corrections. In addition the work of 10 colleagues collecting/filling in forms for different school forms. In total 80 working days.
Comment: Very difficult to estimate. Developments and adaptations of dataprocessing routines are made to meet UOE requirements. 

Not available.

Not available.

The Swedish definition of mobile students will remain the same as previous years. It has earlier been agreed by Eurostat and OECD that the Swedish national definition is better suited to identify mobile students than using the country of upper secondary diploma. 

International students are defined as students who have a student residence permit or are either non-residents or have moved to Sweden not more than six months before starting their studies. For students at ISCED 8 the time limit is 24 months. Students with student residence permit are reported by country of citizenship while other students are reported by country of birth. Exchange students are not included in the definition above. Homecoming nationals are reported as national students.

The main difference compared to classifying all students with a foreign upper secondary diploma as mobile is that Sweden can exclude immigrants who have immigrated for other reasons than studying in higher education, who later start studying in higher education. This means that Sweden can better meet the requirement in the definition that a mobile student should have crossed the border with the objective of studying than would have been the case if the criterion had only been having a foreign upper secondary diploma.