Where America’s International Students Come From

While enrollment at US higher education institutes saw a massive dip during the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of international students has bounced back in the 2022/2023 academic year, thanks to a huge influx from India.

And while still below pre-pandemic levels, 1.06 million international students came to the US in the past school year according to the Open Doors Report on International Education Exchange – a jump of 11.5% over 2021/2022 and 15% over 2020/2021.

As Katharina Buchholz of Statista further notes, International students make up 5.6 percent of the total U.S. student population, up from 4.6 percent one year prior. They contributed around $40 billion to the American economy in 2022/23.

China remained the largest source country for international students with a grand total of 289,526 enrolled in undergraduate, graduate, non-degree and optional practicing training programs. Their number has been decreasing for years however. India, on the other hand, came second with 268,923 students – a count that has been increasing, most recently by a whopping 35 percent. South Korea is in rank 3 with 43,847 international students in the past academic year, followed by Canada, Vietnam and Taiwan. Other countries where international enrollment at U.S. institutions grew quickly were Nigeria (up 22 percent) and Japan (up 19 percent).