The academic year 2024/2025 saw 22,300 people choose to study abroad, which was under five percent of all students with student aid, according to CSN.
For many years, the interest was significantly greater and at most, 30,000 people studied abroad with student aid during the last 25 years. Compared to the academic year 2001/2002, the number has decreased by 20 percent, at the same time as the number of students with student aid in Sweden has increased by 30 percent.
Why the number of students studying abroad is decreasing has not been investigated, but the economy is pointed out as a likely contributing factor.
"During the pandemic, we saw a large decline, but it actually started earlier. For many, it's probably a question of whether you can afford it or not. The Swedish krona has weakened against many currencies and it is often a higher cost to study abroad than in Sweden, even though there are favorable loans to take," says Sofia Lennerth, analyst at CSN, in a press release.
The statistics also show that Europe has become the first choice for more and more people. Both Spain and France have increased in popularity and in Italy, the number has doubled over the last ten years. The USA is still the country that attracts the most students studying abroad, but there the number has halved during the same period.
