Cost per student (Swedish: kostnad per elev) represents the municipality's total expenditure on compulsory school divided by the number of students. The measure is sourced from Kolada (KPI N15033) and includes instruction, premises, school meals, student health services, administration and learning materials.
Large variation between municipalities
Costs vary considerably — from under SEK 100,000 per student in some metropolitan municipalities to over SEK 200,000 in rural municipalities with few students. Rural areas have high fixed costs (premises, school transport) spread over few students, while large-scale operations in urban areas result in lower per-unit costs.
What is included?
The cost covers all items the municipality books under compulsory school operations: teacher salaries (the largest item), facility rent, school meals, student health services (school nurse, counsellor, psychologist), learning materials, administration and school transport. The cost includes both municipal schools and the student voucher paid to independent schools in the municipality.
Higher cost = better school?
Not necessarily. High costs are often explained by geographical conditions (rural areas, islands, long distances) rather than extra investment in instruction. The correlation between cost per student and merit value is weak — there are expensive municipalities with low results and inexpensive municipalities with high results.
Data are sourced from Kolada and refer to the most recently available budget year.