The IIE have released their latest data covering international students in the USA and American students studying abroad – here are the highlights we discovered:
International Students in the US:
Over 1 million international students studied in the US in the academic year 2019/20, this includes those taking an academic program and those on OPT (Optional Practical Training).
That represents over 5% of the total number of enrolled students in the US, but it is roughly 20,000 students lower than the previous period. Early indications suggest that due to the pandemic international student enrolment in 2020 could be down by as much as 16%.
American Students Abroad:
Almost 350,000 US students studied abroad for academic credit in 2018/19 which is the latest data available at this time.
That’s almost 2% higher than 2017/18 – continuing the trend which has been increasing year after year for over 10 consecutive years.
Incoming Student Data:
Incoming students to the US came mainly from China (35%) and India (18%).
The top 10 countries of origin for incoming students were:
- China
- India
- South Korea
- Saudi Arabia
- Canada
- Vietnam
- Taiwan
- Japan
- Brazil
- Mexico
California was the state that hosted the most international students in total (over 160,000 international students).
The most popular school in the US for international students was New York University – hosting over 20,000 students from around the world!
Outgoing Student Data:
Outgoing US students’ top destinations were the UK (11%), Italy (11%) and Spain (10%).
The top 10 destination countries for US study abroad students were:
- United Kingdom
- Italy
- Spain
- France
- Germany
- Ireland
- Australia
- China
- Japan
- Costa Rica
For more on this data please visit https://opendoorsdata.org/annual-release/
If you’re studying abroad you may be able to fund part of your education with a loan:
