The bar chart provides information on the number of applicants into European universities from four different parts of the world over five consecutive years, starting from 2004.
The East Asian countries, China and Japan, demonstrated relatively higher figures, showing contrasting trends. The former was the leading country in 2004 with roughly 27000 applicants, but this count dropped steadily over the period, with the exception of stability during 2006-2007, to finish at 15000. The latter, meanwhile, almost mirrored China in reverse direction: its figure doubled, growing progressively from around 13000 to approximately 26000.
Markedly lower quantities of applications were received from the remaining countries, the USA and Russia. After plateauing initially at just over 5000, the figure for the USA went up gradually over the rest of the period, ending at sharply 10000. Russia, however, was the country with the lowest numbers and the least change, from where only about 2500-3000 students were admitted to these universities in question throughout the period, which was 2-3 times lower than the count for the USA.
Overall, China and Japan were the countries with the highest number of applicants, exhibiting a decrease and an increase respectively. The USA consistently ranked third, showing a relatively stable rise, but Russia was seen to have the lowest quantities by a wide margin.