Loading school data…
The teacher shortage — which municipalities are hit hardest?
Certified teachers are unevenly distributed. Here is the map of the shortage.
Sweden has a shortage of certified teachers — but the shortage is not evenly distributed. Some regions have over 80% certified, others below 60%. Three visualisations show where the shortage is greatest, how it co-varies with school results, and what role pupil density plays.
Certification by county — large regional gaps
Certified teachers cluster in university cities and metropolitan regions. The northern counties and parts of central Sweden have significantly lower proportions. Compare municipal and independent operators to see an additional dimension.
Teacher certification by county — compare municipal and independent.
Open Lärarbehörighet per län fullscreen →Do certified teachers produce better results?
The correlation exists — but it is weaker than one might intuitively think. Schools with high certification tend to have higher merit scores, but the spread is large. Teacher quality co-varies with socioeconomic factors, making it difficult to isolate the effect.
Each bubble a school. X-axis: certification, Y-axis: merit score, size: pupil count.
Open Behörighet vs Meritvärde fullscreen →Pupil density — does class size matter?
Municipalities with teacher shortages sometimes compensate with larger classes. But is it true that larger classes produce worse results? The data shows a weak negative correlation — but below a certain threshold, other factors play a larger role.
Pupils per teacher vs national test results. The correlation is weaker than expected.
Open Elevtäthet vs Resultat fullscreen →Teacher certification is one of the most important factors that education policy can actually influence. You cannot legislate away socioeconomic inequality — but you can make the teaching profession attractive enough that competent teachers seek out where they are needed most.
The municipalities that manage to attract certified teachers despite geographic disadvantages — with competitive salaries, good working conditions and clear leadership — show that it is possible to break the pattern.