Educational attainment of the population 2008: corrected 2009-06-25

Highest level of education in the Stockholm area

Nearly 40 municipalities, mainly larger cities and county towns, have a higher proportion of highly educated persons than the country average (22 percent). The majority of the municipalities with the highest level of education are in Stockholm County.

2009-06-25: The term upper secondary school has been corrected to post-secondary education.

In eight municipalities in Stockholm County 30 percent or more of the population have attended at least three years of post-secondary education. The same applies to Lund, Lomma, Uppsala, Umeå, Linköping and Gothenburg.

The high level of education in the Stockholm area can be explained by a labour market which to a high extent is made up of industries such as “financial activities and business services”, “research and development”, and “public administration”. These industries employ a high percentage of highly educated persons. Furthermore, many types of higher education are offered in the Stockholm area.

Municipalities with the largest share and highest number respectively of inhabitants that have at least three years of post-secondary education in 2008. Ages 25–64.

The level of education is lower in many municipalities outside the metropolitan areas. Bar a few exceptions, the smaller municipalities have a larger share of less educated. They also have a lower percentage of highly educated persons compared to the county towns of their respective county. In most counties the percentage of highly educated is substantially higher in its county town compared to other municipalities in the county.

A presentation of the level of education in all municipalities is available on Statistics Sweden’s website as well as in the statistical database:
http://www.scb.se/Pages/ProductTables____9575.aspx

Level of education for foreign-born persons

Foreign-born persons have a slightly lower level of education than those born in Sweden. There are only slight differences when it comes to post-secondary education; 37 percent of Swedish-born persons have post-secondary education compared to 35 percent of immigrants. A higher percentage of foreign-born persons have only compulsory education compared to Swedish-born persons.

There is a larger proportion of highly educated women than men among foreign-born as well as Swedish-born persons. Female foreign-born persons are more likely to only have compulsory education than male foreign-born persons. The opposite is true among people born in Sweden: 17 percent of men and 11 percent of women have only compulsory education.

There are big variations between different countries of birth and immigrant groups. This has a lot to do with the fact that age structure and reason for immigration varies between the groups.

Level of education by country of birth and sex 2008. Ages 25–64