According to the data that have been published in Eurydice, between the years 2000 and 2009, in an average of 27 European countries, the student population in higher education increased by about 22% (annual rate of increase, 2.7%), reaching 19.5 million in 2009. The increase differs significantly from one country to another: on the one hand, there was no increase in Spain, France and Portugal, and on the other in Cyprus and Turkey the number of students doubled, while in Romania it tripled. This differentiation can be explained by the existence of a greater dynamic in these countries, without forgetting the level of access to higher education, in the sense that they had a less developed higher education system.