In the academic year 2023/24, there were 331,602 international students from India studying in the United States. International students The majority of international students studying in the United States are originally from India and China, totaling 331,602 students and 277,398 students respectively in the 2023/24 school year. In 2022/23, there were 467,027 international graduate students , which accounted for over one third of the international students in the country. Typically, engineering and math & computer science programs were among the most common fields of study for these students. The United States is home to many world-renowned schools, most notably, the Ivy League Colleges which provide education that is sought after by both foreign and local students. International students and college Foreign students in the United States pay some of the highest fees in the United States, with an average of 24,914 U.S. dollars. American students attending a college in New England paid an average of 14,900 U.S. dollars for tuition alone and there were about 79,751 international students in Massachusetts . Among high-income families, U.S. students paid an average of 34,700 U.S. dollars for college, whereas the average for all U.S. families reached only 28,026 U.S. dollars. Typically, 40 percent of families paid for college tuition through parent income and savings, while 29 percent relied on grants and scholarships.

The United States was the top host destination for international students worldwide. In 2022, around ********* students were enrolled in higher education in the U.S.. Furthermore, more than ******* and ******* international students enrolled in the United Kingdom and Canada, respectively.

In the academic year 2022/23, California was the most popular state for international students, with 138,393 international students studying there. New York, Texas, Massachusetts, and Illinois rounded out the top five leading states for international students in the United States.

There were 1,057,188 international students studying in the United States in the 2022/23 academic year. This is an increase from the previous year, when 948,519 international students were studying in the United States.

This Cost of International Education dataset compiles detailed financial information for students pursuing higher education abroad. It covers multiple countries, cities, and universities around the world, capturing the full tuition and living expenses spectrum alongside key ancillary costs. With standardized fields such as tuition in USD, living-cost indices, rent, visa fees, insurance, and up-to-date exchange rates, it enables comparative analysis across programs, degree levels, and geographies. Whether you’re a prospective international student mapping out budgets, an educational consultant advising on affordability, or a researcher studying global education economics, this dataset offers a comprehensive foundation for data-driven insights.

Description

Potential Uses

• Budget Planning Prospective students can filter by country, program level, or university to forecast total expenses and compare across destinations.
• Policy Analysis Educational policymakers and NGOs can assess the affordability of international education and design support programs.
• Economic Research Economists can correlate living-cost indices and tuition levels with enrollment rates or student demographics.
• University Benchmarking Institutions can benchmark their fees and ancillary costs against peer universities worldwide.

Notes on Data Collection & Quality

• Currency Conversions All monetary values are unified to USD using contemporaneous exchange rates to facilitate direct comparison.
• Living Cost Index Derived from reputable city-index publications (e.g., Numbeo, Mercer) to standardize disparate cost-of-living metrics.
• Data Currency Exchange rates and fee schedules should be periodically updated to reflect market fluctuations and policy changes.

Feel free to explore, visualize, and extend this dataset for deeper insights into the true cost of studying abroad!

The U.S. currently enjoys a position among the world’s foremost innovative and scientifically advanced economies but the emergence of new economic powerhouses like China and India threatens to disrupt the global distribution of innovation and economic competitiveness. Among U.S. policy makers, the promotion of advanced education, particularly in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields, has become a key strategy for ensuring the U.S.’s position as an innovative economic leader. Since approximately one third of science and engineering post-graduate students in the U.S. are foreign born, the future of the U.S. STEM educational system is intimately tied to issues of global competitiveness and American immigration policy. This study utilizes a combination of national education data, a survey of foreign-born STEM graduate students, and in-depth interviews of a sub-set of those students to explain how a combination of scientists’ and engineers’ educational decisions, as well as their experience in school, can predict a students’ career path and geographical location, which can affect the long-term innovation environment in their home and destination country. This study highlights the fact that the increasing global competitiveness in STEM education and the complex, restrictive nature of U.S. immigration policies are contributing to an environment where the American STEM system may no longer be able to comfortably remain the premier destination for the world’s top international students.

In 2023, Business, Management, Sales, and Accounting were the fields of study with the highest proportion of international students. Foreign students in these degree courses represented more than ** percent of students, followed by university degrees, **** percent of which were taken by international students. Who are the international students in France? France attracted many international students who were willing to attend some of its business and engineering schools and universities. The majority of them come from outside the European Union (EU). Students from Africa and Asia are the most populous among foreign students in higher education institutions in France. However, France is also part of the Erasmus program, welcoming young people from other European countries. France was for example the second most popular destination among Italian students. And where do the French studying abroad go? If France is a host country for international students, it appears the French do study abroad too. In 2018, a majority of French students declared that they were willing to do their studies in a foreign country. The ones who take the plunge mainly choose Europe as their destination. Thus, France was the second most common European Union country of domicile for international students in the United Kingdom

Distribution of international student graduates, by level of tertiary education, institution type, Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) 2021, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and BHASE (business, humanities, health, arts, social science and education) groupings, gender and age group.

Proportion of Canadian and international student graduates, by International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), institution type, Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) 2021, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and BHASE (business, humanities, health, arts, social science and education) groupings, gender and age group.

The number of postsecondary international student enrolments, by country of citizenship, Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) 2021, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and BHASE (business, humanities, health, arts, social science and education) groupings, International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), institution type and gender.

Provide the number of international students studying/undertaking research in Taiwan for each academic year.

The dataset presents the year-wise share of international students from the top five leading places of origin hosted by each of the top 15 U.S. states with the highest international student populations. The share represents the percentage of international students from each origin relative to the total international student population in that state. For example, a 20% share of Indians in California for 2023-24 indicates that 20% of all international students in California were from India.

In 2018, students from 196 different countries and regions were studying in China. The highest number of students came from South Korea amounting to 50,600, while only 20,996 students came from the United States.

International students in China

The total number of foreign students in China increased steadily over recent years and reached more than 490,000 in 2018. That was roughly double as much as ten years ago and made China one of the leading host destinations for international students. Looking at their origins in terms of global regions reveals that by far the largest share of students come from Asia, while the Americas and Europe together accounted for only slightly more than 22 percent of all students in 2018. While the share of students from Western countries has been shrinking steadily in recent years, more and more students from Asia and Africa were attracted to study in China. Regarding the United States, the figures interestingly not only decreased in relation to other regions, but also in total numbers. In contrast, students particularly from Africa are increasingly able and willing to study in China, and numbers from countries participating in China's Belt and Road Initiative displayed the highest growth rates over recent years.

Student situation

Regarding the financial situation of international students in China, most of them were either self-funded or receiving a scholarship from foreign institutions. However, the number of students supported by the Chinese government increased considerably over the last ten years, with a growing number of scholarships granted to students from developing countries. Preferred universities for study were either located in the two most developed cities Beijing and Shanghai, or in the eastern and southern coastal regions of China.

The dataset contains Academic-year-wise compiled data on number of newly enrolled International Students in the United States of America (U.S.A) for pursuing Under Graduate, Graduate and Non-Degree studies.

The dataset presents the total number of international students hosted by each US state over the years. An international student is defined in the report as anyone studying at an institution of higher education in the United States on a temporary visa that allows for academic coursework. These include primarily holders of F (student) visas and J (exchange visitor) visas. For the purposes of Open Doors, students at institutions other than accredited colleges and universities are not counted, such as secondary schools or vocational schools. Individuals who have permanent residency are not counted.

This indicator presents the incoming students and outgoing students for each country, using the figures provided by the host country on foreign students enrolled in tertiary education by nationality. It includes only the EU/EEA/Candidate countries and the nationalities corresponding to these countries. Countries do not have details of the numbers of their home students studying abroad. For a given nationality, the number of students studying abroad is calculated by summing the numbers provided for this nationality by the receiving countries. The lack of data on the distribution of students by nationality in some countries leads to underestimation of the values.

1. Reference Year: 2022/20232. Data on student numbers is provided by the Higher Education Authority’s Student Records System (SRS) returns3. The aim of international students coming to Ireland to study is to build relationships between Irish educational institutions and their global partners in order to enhance the quality and relevance of our education system, and to support the development of Ireland’s students to become global citizens4. All values for Higher Education Students are rounded to the nearest 5 students with the individual figures rounded independently, so the sum of the component items may therefore not necessarily add to the totals shown5. Non-EU category includes unknown nationality6. The figures for C.39 (The Number of Students participating in Erasmus/Lifelong Learning Programme) is provisional7. All %'s are a ratio between 0 – 1

In 2023, there were over 436 thousand international students enrolled in higher education across Australia. The number of international students enrolled in higher education in Australia has increased from 2009, when there were just over 226,000 students from overseas. Studying in Australia has become extremely popular due to its high standard of education and multicultural environment. Education export income For Australian citizens, tertiary education is made more accessible through government supported subsidies and a payment deferral scheme. However, non-citizens and international students must pay the full cost of their degree, which can be well over 20,000 Australian dollars per year. Despite the relatively high cost of education in Australia, it is a popular choice for international students and education exports contribute significantly to the Australian economy. In 2023 alone, the total value of education exports in Australia was 36.4 billion Australian dollars, bringing the income back to pre-COVID-19 values. International student fees are also the second most valuable source of income for universities, after funding from the Australian government. International student population With the substantial income that international students bring to tertiary institutions, it is perhaps unsurprising that the proportion of international students at many Australian universities can be as high as 40 percent of the total student population. In 2023, the total number of international students enrolled in higher education numbered almost 437 thousand, with Chinese students making up almost quarter of the International student population. The majority of international students come from Asia and the Indian subcontinent, however students from Brazil and Columbia were among the top ten international student groups in 2023.

New York University had around 24,496 international students studying there in the academic year of 2022/23, making it the most popular university for international students in the United States. NYU was followed by Northeastern University, with 20,637 international students, and by Columbia University, which hosted 19,001 international students.

The International STEM Graduate Student Survey assesses why international students are coming to the United States for their graduate studies, the challenges they have faced while studying in the US, their future career plans, and whether they wish to stay or leave the US upon graduation. According to the Survey of Earned Doctorates by the National Science Foundation and the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, international students accounted for over 40% of all US doctoral graduates in STEM in 2013. The factors that influence international students' decisions to study in the US and whether they will stay or leave are important to US economic competitiveness. We contacted graduate students (both domestic and international) in STEM disciplines from the top 10 universities ranked by the total number of enrolled international students. We estimate that we contacted approximately 15,990 students. Individuals were asked to taken an online survey regarding their background, reasons for studying in the US, and whether they plan to stay or leave the US upon graduation. We received a total of 2,322 completed surveys, giving us a response rate of 14.5%. 1,535 of the completed were from domestic students and 787 of which were from international students. Raw survey data are presented here.Survey participants were contacted via Qualtrics to participate in this survey. The Universe of this survey data set pertains to all graduate students (Master's and PhD) in STEM disciplines from the following universities: Columbia University, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, Michigan State University, Northeastern University, Purdue University, University of Southern California, Arizona State University, University of California at Los Angeles, New York University, University of Washington at Seattle. Data are broken into 2 subsets: one for international STEM graduate students and one for domestic STEM graduate students, please see respective files.