Sweden
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Sweden
Teachers and teaching conditions (TALIS 2024)
  • In Sweden, teachers are on average 47 years old, which is higher than the OECD average (45 years). Since 2018, the share of teachers aged 50 and above has increased by 7 percentage points.
  • About 77% of teachers have non-teaching work experience (higher than the OECD average: 57%).
  • Around 63% of teachers work in schools where more than 10% of students have a different first language (higher than the OECD average: 25%), while 54% feel able to adapt their teaching to cultural diversity “quite a bit” or “a lot” (lower than the OECD average: 63%).
  • About 60% of teachers feel they can support students’ social and emotional learning “quite a bit” or “a lot” (lower than the OECD average: 73%).
  • Only 6% of teachers work in schools where at least one hybrid or online lesson was taught in the last month (lower than the OECD average: 16%).
  • Around 31% of teachers report having used artificial intelligence (AI) in their work (lower than the OECD average: 36%).
  • About 23% of novice teachers with up to five years of experience have an assigned mentor (similar to the OECD average: 26%).
  • Around 34% of teachers say the professional learning activities they took part in during the last 12 months had a positive impact on their teaching (lower than the OECD average: 55%).
  • The most frequent forms of collaboration among teachers include discussions about student learning development (83%), exchanging teaching materials (63%), and working together to ensure common evaluation standards (58%).
  • Only 15% of teachers agree or strongly agree that teachers are valued in society (lower than the OECD average: 22%).
  • About 71% of teachers are satisfied with their terms of employment, excluding salaries (higher than the OECD average: 68%).
  • Around 40% of teachers report satisfaction with their salaries (similar to the OECD average: 39%).
  • The most common sources of stress include too much administrative work (65%), modifying lessons for students with special education needs (51%), and too much marking (51%).
  • The share of teachers who report overall job satisfaction is 92% (higher than the OECD average: 89%).
  • Only 9% of teachers under age 30 intend to leave teaching within the next five years (lower than the OECD average: 20%).

  • * Estimates for Alberta (Canada), the Netherlands, New Zealand and Norway should be interpreted with caution due to higher risk of non-response bias.

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    The following list displays indicators for which your selected country shows the highest and lowest values among countries. The list can be sorted by level of education or by age group. All rankings are calculated including available data from OECD and partner countries. Find out more about the methodology here.

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    Who the teachers are

    The share of lower secondary teachers with non-teaching work experience in Sweden was among the largest across countries with available data. (76.9 %, rank 3/55 , 2024) Download Indicator

    Initial and induction training of teachers

    In Sweden, the percentage of recent lower secondary teacher graduates who felt well prepared by their initial education to use digital resources and tools for teaching was among the lowest across countries with available data. (33 %, rank 54/55 , 2024) Download Indicator

    Professional development of teachers

    A small percentage of teachers feel professional development activities in the 12 months prior to the survey had a positive impact on their teaching practices. (34.1 %, rank 52/55 , 2024) Download Indicator

    Among novice lower secondary teachers in Sweden, the percentage reporting that professional learning activities during the 12 months preceding the survey had a positive impact on their teaching was among the lowest across countries with available data. (41.1 %, rank 51/55 , 2024) Download Indicator

    Teachers' practices

    The proportion of lower secondary teachers in Sweden who feel confident supporting students’ social and emotional learning “quite a bit” or “a lot” was among the lowest across countries with available data. (60.1 %, rank 51/55 , 2024) Download Indicator

    Teaching in multicultural settings

    In Sweden, more teachers have at least 10% of students whose first language is different from the language of instruction in their class. (63.5 %, rank 3/55 , 2024) Download Indicator

    Teachers' autonomy, collegiality and collaboration

    Among lower secondary teachers in Sweden, those engaging in discussions about the learning development of specific students at least once a month were among the highest across countries with available data. (82.8 %, rank 2/55 , 2024) Download Indicator

    Teacher stress factors

    The percentage of lower secondary teachers in Sweden who reported stress from keeping up with changing requirements from authorities was among the lowest across countries with available data. (19.8 %, rank 51/55 , 2024) Download Indicator

    In Sweden, the share of lower secondary teachers reporting stress from modifying lessons for students with special education needs was among the highest across countries with available data. (51.3 %, rank 3/55 , 2024) Download Indicator

    The share of lower secondary teachers in Sweden reporting stress from keeping up with curriculum or programme changes was among the lowest across countries with available data. (16.2 %, rank 55/55 , 2024) Download Indicator


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    General findings
    
                            
    • Teachers are aging in many education systems. While the average age of teachers is around 45 years old, more than one out of two teachers are 50 or older.
    • Prior non-teaching work experience is more and more common for teachers. In around half of the education systems, at least one out of two teachers have prior non-teaching work experience.
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    • Around one in three teachers report having used artificial intelligence (AI) in their work, on average across OECD education systems.
    • Many teachers – especially female and experienced teachers – report meeting key lesson aims, though supporting students' social and emotional learning remains challenging.
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    • The large majority of teachers are satisfied with their profession, which indicates that most teachers find meaning and personal fulfilment in their work. Almost nine in ten teachers report that they are satisfied with their jobs overall.
    • Administrative workload remains a considerable demand for teachers. About half of teachers report excessive administrative work as a source of work-related stress, particularly those with more than ten years of experience.
    • Discipline and behaviour issues as sources of stress are important predictors of teachers’ fulfilment of their lesson aims, their well-being, job satisfaction and their intention to leave teaching. About one in five teachers report experiencing significant disruptive noise and disorder in their classrooms, and the share of time spent on maintaining discipline has increased since 2018.
    • Teachers are spending more time working together compared to 2018. Full-time teachers report spending around 3 hours per week participating in teamwork and dialogue with colleagues. Teachers who report good professional relationships with principals, other teachers, parents and guardians, and students tend to report higher well-being and job satisfaction.
    Visualisations
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    • Administrative workload remains a considerable demand for teachers. About half of teachers report excessive administrative work as a source of work-related stress, particularly those with more than ten years of experience.
    • Discipline and behaviour issues as sources of stress are important predictors of teachers’ fulfilment of their lesson aims, their well-being, job satisfaction and their intention to leave teaching. About one in five teachers report experiencing significant disruptive noise and disorder in their classrooms, and the share of time spent on maintaining discipline has increased since 2018.
    • Teachers’ satisfaction with their terms of employment (including salary) has increased in many education systems since 2018.
    Visualisations
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    • Mentoring is gaining popularity. About one in four novice teachers (teachers with up to five years of teaching experience) has an assigned mentor.
    • While nearly all teachers participate in continuous professional learning, not all of them find that doing so has a positive impact on their teaching. Just 55% of teachers report that the professional learning activities they participated in during the 12 months preceding the survey had a positive impact on their teaching.
    Visualisations
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    Click the arrow sign next to the title: arrows to display other variables
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    • Teachers are spending more time working together compared to 2018. Full-time teachers report spending around 3 hours per week participating in teamwork and dialogue with colleagues. Teachers who report good professional relationships with principals, other teachers, parents and guardians, and students tend to report higher well-being and job satisfaction.
    Visualisations
    Click the arrow sign next to the title: arrows to display other variables
    Click the arrow sign next to the title: arrows to display other variables
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    • Feedback and appraisal are common features of teachers’ professional lives. On average across OECD education systems, 88% of teachers report receiving feedback from their school principal, 61% from assigned mentors and 55% from external individuals or bodies. At the same time, principals report that only less than 6% of teachers are never formally appraised.
    Visualisations
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    Key
    Diagram of funding flows - Sweden

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    Key
    Country Reviews for Sweden

    Note: These values should be interpreted with care since they are influenced by countries' specific contexts and trade-offs. In education, there is often no simple most- or least-efficient model. For instance, the share of private expenditure in education must be read against other measures designed to mitigate inequities, such as loans and grants; longer learning time is an opportunity to convey more and better content to students, but may hinder investments in other important areas. If you want further information on the nature of different variables, please take the time to read the analysis and contextual information, available at the website for each publication.
    All rankings for individual variables are compiled on the basis of OECD and G20 countries for which data are available. The OECD average includes only OECD countries which are listed here: https://www.oecd.org/en/about/members-partners.html

    Reference years displayed in the Education GPS correspond to the most common year of reference among countries for which data is available on each variable. Data for the latest available year is preferred and some countries may have provided data refering to a more recent or late year. To know more about possible exceptions on data please click on the "Download Indicator" link on each variable. When a year of reference corresponds to a school year encompassing two years, the reference reads as follows: 2026 for school year 2025/2026.

    *TALIS averages are based on all countries participating in the TALIS survey, including partner countries and economies. This explains the difference between the OECD average and the TALIS averages. Data from the TALIS survey and Education at a Glance (EAG) may differ. See Annex E of the TALIS technical report and Annex 3 of EAG 2024 for more details about the data collections.

    For additional notes, please refer to annexes in the list of links below the introductory country profile text.