The chart below shows the number of international applicants to the universities of one European country.

The bar chart illustrates how many international students from four distinct countries applied to universities in a particular European nation varied in consecutive yearly from 2004 to 2008.

Overall

, the number of

applicants

from Japan and the

USA

witnessed an upward trend by varying degrees,

while

China showed a consistent decrease throughout the surveyed years. Meanwhile, the data for Russia remained relatively constant. Notably, the

USA

applicants

surpassed China to register the highest in the second half of the

period

. Regarding

applicants

from Japan and the

USA

, both witnessed an increase in their applications to universities over the given

period

. Starting at roughly 7.000

applicants

in 2004, Japanese students who applied to universities grew steadily each year, reaching 10.000 student applications in 2008. Despite the continuous increase, Japan remained in third place by the end of the

period

among the four countries. Meanwhile, the figure for the

USA

showed a similarity, albeit to a greater extent with 13.000 in 2004 and approximately 2.000 to 5.000 increase every year, culminating in 23.000 candidates in 2008,

thus

leading the chart. Moving on to the remaining countries, China and Russia university candidate patterns were different. The former was highest in 2004, prior to a fall of nearly 9.000

applicants

in 2006. It

then

persisted in declining to under 16.000

applicants

in 2008 and being surpassed by the

USA

. It

were

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the least popular for Russia, which remained the lowest throughout the

period

, consistently under 5.000

applicants

.