DG for Education and Training of the European Commisssion has issued a statistical overview of mobility with the Erasmus programme, including detailed analysis of student and staff mobility, Erasmus Intensive Language Courses and Intensive Programmes in the academic year 2007/08.

The report "Statistical Overview of the implementation of the decentralised actions in the Erasmus programme in 2007/08" highlights the continuing growth of Erasmus student mobility. In 2007/08 almost 183,000 students from around 2,500 higher education institutions participated in the programme. In addition, 32,000 academic and other staff were mobile to teach and get training in another European country.

During the academic year 2007/08, Spain (31,129 – 17.04 %) remained the most popular destination followed by France (23,172 – 12.68 %) and Germany (20,822 – 11.40 %), and overall incoming mobility has increased by 64 % since 2000/01 in Europe.

In the academic year 2007/08, the first year of the Lifelong Learning Programme, 182,697 students went to another European country for a study or a placement period. The biggest share of outgoing Erasmus students came from Germany (26,286 – 14.39 %), France (25,945 – 14.20 %) and Spain (24,984 – 13.68 %).

The average Erasmus student stays abroad for around 6 months. The average duration ranges from 3.9 months for students coming from Malta to 7.6 months for students coming from Spain.

The Erasmus programme started in 1987, and today more than 180,000 students go abroad annually with the support of the EU's Lifelong Learning Programme. In mid-2009 the total number of people who went abroad with Erasmus as students reached 2 million