Swedish pass rates rise sharply with time spent in Sweden

Fewer than half of foreign-born ninth-graders who had lived in Sweden for under five years passed Swedish or Swedish as a second language in spring 2025. Among those who had lived in the country for more than ten years, 91% passed.

The figures, published by Statistics Sweden on 8 October, show how sharply results differ within the group described as pupils with a foreign background.

Across that group, around 32,000 pupils took Swedish or Swedish as a second language, and 84% passed. The definition includes pupils born abroad and those born in Sweden with two foreign-born parents.

Parental education also mattered. Among pupils who had spent under five years in Sweden, 67% passed if their parents’ highest education was post-secondary, compared with 39% where it was below upper-secondary level.

The gap associated with parental education was smaller among pupils who had lived in Sweden longer. Those with more than ten years in the country had arrived before starting compulsory school, and their pass rate matched that of Swedish-born pupils with foreign-born parents.

The statistics describe associations between background and results. They do not establish why an individual pupil passed or failed.

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