Four of the five island nations in Europe are the top four hosts for the Erasmus+ programme, according to an analysis by Explained based on the latest data from Eurostat. The data from the academic year 2019/2020 shows that Malta, Iceland, Cyprus and Ireland hosted the most students and staff per capita through the European Union’s programme.
Erasmus+, a flagship education and training initiative, is set up to support education, training, youth, and sport in Europe. The mobility program allows students, trainees, teachers and youth workers to spend a period of time studying, training, or volunteering abroad.
Malta, a small island nation in the Mediterranean with a population of just over half a million inhabitants, hosted over 16 000 students and staff, representing 3 118 participants per 100 000 population.
Iceland, the next most popular country, hosted 3 210 participants — more than three times fewer participants per capita compared to Malta. Cyprus and Ireland hosted more than five times fewer participants per capita, respectively. The UK — the fifth island nation — hosts fewer participants per capita following Brexit.
With more than 100 thousand participants, Spain hosted the highest number of people, followed by Italy and Germany.
| Host country | Total participants | Participants per 100 000 |
|---|---|---|
| Spain | 108 832 | 230 |
| Italy | 72 208 | 121 |
| Germany | 66 448 | 80 |
| United Kingdom | 60 139 | 90 |
| France | 49 496 | 73 |
| Poland | 38 866 | 103 |
| Portugal | 36 777 | 357 |
| Ireland | 27 942 | 560 |
| Netherlands | 25 435 | 146 |
| Czechia | 23 456 | 219 |
| Belgium | 21 662 | 188 |
| Finland | 19 904 | 360 |
| Austria | 19 346 | 217 |
| Greece | 18 184 | 170 |
| Sweden | 17 835 | 172 |
| Romania | 17 752 | 92 |
| Malta | 16 070 | 3 118 |
| Hungary | 15 642 | 160 |
| Denmark | 12 541 | 215 |
| Norway | 11 892 | 221 |
| Lithuania | 9 389 | 336 |
| Slovenia | 8 488 | 404 |
| Bulgaria | 8 261 | 119 |
| Croatia | 7 839 | 194 |
| Cyprus | 7 514 | 622 |
| Latvia | 6 275 | 330 |
| Estonia | 6 266 | 471 |
| Iceland | 3 210 | 876 |
| Georgia | 2 918 | 78 |
| Luxembourg | 2 776 | 440 |
| Serbia | 2 093 | 30 |
| North Macedonia | 1 973 | 95 |
| Ukraine | 1 779 | 4 |
| Armenia | 1 527 | 52 |
| Albania | 769 | 27 |
| Belarus | 517 | 6 |
| Moldova | 390 | 15 |
| Montenegro | 246 | 40 |
| Liechtenstein | 201 | 527 |
| Switzerland | 8 | 0 |
Method and data
The data about the Erasmus+ programme can be found at data.europa.eu. The population data comes from The World Bank.
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