This page places Sweden's compulsory schools with an independent operator beside those with a municipal operator — 814 and 3,802 school units respectively. Each metric is reported against its own data: how many schools have a published value, how many could have had one, which school year the value refers to, and what is missing.
These figures describe differences; they do not explain them. Schools differ in pupil composition, size and catchment area, and those differences do not follow the type of operator. Two schools of the same operator type can differ more than the two groups differ from each other.
Key figures side by side
| Metric | Independent operator | Municipal operator |
|---|---|---|
| Number of compulsory schools | 814 | 3,802 |
| Merit score year 9 | 238.7 points median 244.9 · range 59.6–320.7 484 of 530 schools · school year 2025/26 27 values withheld for confidentiality · 19 schools without a published value · the values come from 5 different school years | 222.8 points median 221.4 · range 91.5–297.6 1,097 of 1,258 schools · school year 2025/26 63 values withheld for confidentiality · 98 schools without a published value · the values come from 4 different school years |
| Certified teachers | 65.7% median 68 · range 0–100 686 of 814 schools · school year 2025/26 2 values withheld for confidentiality · 126 schools without a published value · the values come from 4 different school years | 73.1% median 75 · range 0–100 3,656 of 3,802 schools · school year 2025/26 23 values withheld for confidentiality · 123 schools without a published value · the values come from 4 different school years |
| Pupils per teacher | 12.1 median 12.3 · range 0.6–21.5 801 of 814 schools · school year 2025/26 3 values withheld for confidentiality · 10 schools without a published value · the values come from 4 different school years | 11.8 median 11.8 · range 0.3–27.5 3,672 of 3,802 schools · school year 2025/26 22 values withheld for confidentiality · 108 schools without a published value · the values come from 4 different school years |
12 school units running both compulsory and upper-secondary education are excluded, because their teacher and pupil figures cannot be separated by school form. 11 school units have another or unrecorded type of operator (for example a region or the state) and belong to neither group.
How we calculate — and what these figures cannot tell you
Each value is an unweighted mean of the school-level values: a school with 40 pupils counts as much as one with 500. That is why we also show the median and the range, so a difference between two means is not read as an even gap between the groups. These means are not the national figures published by Skolverket (the Swedish National Agency for Education), which are pupil-weighted.
We publish no group average based on fewer than 3 schools with a published value, or covering less than 60% of the schools in the group that could report the metric. Nor do we compare two groups whose values refer to different school years. The limits apply however large the group is; a large group clears them more easily, but they do not lapse.
A merit score exists only for school units that run year 9, which is why that row’s denominator is smaller than the group’s total number of schools. The teacher metrics cover every compulsory school in the group.
The rows cannot be compared with one another. Each metric has its own data: a school may have a published merit score but no teacher figures, and the share that is missing differs between the groups. Read each row on its own, against the denominator stated in the cell.
The columns describe partly different parts of the country. Independent compulsory schools exist in 182 of 290 municipalities, while the municipal column also holds 108 municipalities with no independent compulsory school in this comparison. A difference between the columns is therefore partly a difference between places, not only between types of operator.
The comparison covers compulsory school (grundskola). Preschool class, leisure-time centres and adapted compulsory school are not included in the figures even where the school unit also runs them, and units running both compulsory and upper-secondary education are excluded because their teacher and pupil figures cannot be separated by school form. Schools whose operator type is neither municipal nor independent, or is not recorded, belong to neither group.
Skolverket does not publish values covering fewer than ten pupils; the figure is withheld for confidentiality. Such gaps hit small schools hardest and are therefore reported separately from values that are simply absent. How large the gap is differs by metric and by group; each cell states its own.
SALSA is Skolverket's model comparing a school's results with what its pupils' background predicts. We show that analysis separately in the story about independent and municipal schools. Such a model shows how much of a difference co-varies with pupil background — not what causes it.
Where are the independent compulsory schools?
Of 290 municipalities with compulsory schools in this comparison, 108 have no compulsory school with an independent operator, and the median share is 10%.
The list below shows the 15 highest shares among 276 municipalities with at least 3 compared compulsory schools — below that, a single school moves the share by tens of percentage points. The number of schools sits beside the share: a share of five schools does not mean the same as a share of sixty.
| Municipality | Independent schools, of those compared | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Upplands Väsby | 10 of 17 | 58.8% |
| Solna | 11 of 21 | 52.4% |
| Sollentuna | 14 of 31 | 45.2% |
| Täby | 14 of 32 | 43.8% |
| Helsingborg | 26 of 60 | 43.3% |
| Salem | 3 of 7 | 42.9% |
| Strängnäs | 6 of 14 | 42.9% |
| Sundbyberg | 5 of 12 | 41.7% |
| Stockholm | 102 of 245 | 41.6% |
| Nacka | 16 of 39 | 41% |
| Bollnäs | 6 of 15 | 40% |
| Grums | 2 of 5 | 40% |
| Simrishamn | 4 of 10 | 40% |
| Sjöbo | 4 of 10 | 40% |
| Vallentuna | 5 of 13 | 38.5% |
The share says nothing about the schools in the municipality. Merit scores municipality by municipality are in the analysis of municipal merit scores.