The Nordic Surge: growing international search interest for 2026

With global higher education in flux during 2025, our data reveals growth in international interest across a range of less traditional study destinations. Including the Nordic countries, with rising interest in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

It's been a familiar theme in our data at Keystone this year: Various traditionally strong study destinations are ceding some ground in terms of interest from international students and that opens up widespread opportunities for those willing and eager to grow overseas education.

We've seen this effect across search trends in Asia, Oceania and Africa, but today we're focusing on the spiritual home of Keystone Education: the Nordics. How have their search trends been impacted?

Let's dive into our unique share of search and survey data to find the answer.

How do audiences differ?

Below we have a chart that displays what regions international searches come from for each Nordic destination on our platforms. The first column shows the amalgamation of all Nordic destinations, and then we see them separately to explore how their international audiences differ:

Perhaps unsurprisingly, international searches for Nordic study predominantly come from Europe, whose audiences account for 44% of all searches for Nordic study.

Europe is followed by South Asia with 15% of all searches and Africa with 11% - though, it should be pointed out that Chinese audiences are excluded from this timespan due to a temporary analytics issue.

What's interesting, however, is the nuance between destinations:

• Denmark is particularly reliant on European interest - in fact European audiences make up a significantly larger proportion of searches for Denmark (60%) than Finland (30%)
• Finland has a much more diverse audience - interest from South Asia (24%) is almost as great as from Europe (30%), and Finland also attracts the greatest level of relative search interest from Southeast Asia (10%) and the joint greatest from Africa (14%) along with Norway
• Norway is also slightly less reliant on the European audience, attracting the greatest level of interest from North American (13%)
• Swedish interest is the most similar to the Nordics' cumulative figures - Europe is top, followed by South Asia then a handful of other audiences

That said, some audiences remain large across destinations. India, for example, places top 5 in terms of searches for all Nordic study destinations and is the 2nd largest individual audience for all Nordic destinations combined. Likewise, the USA is a major audience and places 3rd cumulatively. Prospective students from Bangladesh and Nigeria are also drawn to the Nordics, with both making the top 10 list in terms of searches made.

But what is it that draws these audiences in? Why are we seeing a Nordic surge?

How do audiences perceive Nordic study?

In our unique Keystone Pulse survey, we ask prospective students a wide range of questions that allow us an insight into our audiences beyond their searching habits. As part of that, we ask respondents to rate their chosen study destination on a range of factors that may encourage (or detract from) international study in that region. They are asked to rate each factor on a five point scale from 'Very Good' to 'Very Poor'.

Below we see the percentage of respondents who selected 'Very Good' across a range of those factors relating to study in the Nordics collectively, compared to various European competitors and the USA:

As we can see, the Nordics perform well across the board.

Perhaps most importantly, the Nordics rank rather significantly above their competitors for perceptions of safety & political stability and ease of entry. This is particularly important at a time of global uncertainty where prospective students, and even enrolled students, are often unsure of how and when policies and politics may impact their access to study in certain destinations.

Another great strength of Nordic study is its affordability, and as we can see, perceptions around this - for both the Nordics and Germany - are much stronger than their competitors. Historically, study across the Nordics was free for all, however, in recent years fees have been introduced across the board for non-EU students. Despite this, the continuation of free study for all EU, EEA and Swiss citizens along with competitive rates for fee paying students has resulted in the Nordics retaining its perception as a more affordable study destination than many competitors.

Finally, we look to the academics. In order to capitalize on the growing uncertainty found in some traditionally popular study destinations, there needs to be a recognition that a similar quality of education can be found elsewhere. Our data indicates that the Nordics are globally recognized for the quality of their education systems. They place behind only the UK and US when it comes to perceptions of academic reputation - with more than half of their audiences selecting 'Very Good' for this factor - and tie level with Germany, again behind only the UK and US, for perceptions of the distinctive subject areas on offer.

That would all suggest that audiences see the Nordics as a viable alternative to the traditional powerhouses of international education. They are a place to gain an internationally recognized qualification at a competitive price and in a place that is trusted, both politically and safety-wise. It's an enticing offer. No wonder we've seen so many turn their attentions towards the region throughout 2025.