Over One Million International Students at US Universities Again

More than one million international students from over 210 countries enrolled at universities and colleges in the United States in the 2022/23 academic year, according to official figures.

The Open Doors 2023 Report released on Monday, November 13, 2023, by the US State Department and the Institute of International Education revealed that the total number of international students in the US in 2022/23 was 1,057,188, Erudera.com reports.

That was a 12 percent increase compared to the previous academic year and the fastest growth in over 40 years. Additionally, the number of students is almost back to pre-pandemic levels.

“Over one million international students studying in the US reflects a strong rebound, with the number approaching pre-pandemic levels. This reinforces that the US remains the destination of choice for international students wishing to study abroad, as it has been for more than a century,” said Allan E. Goodman, CEO of IIE.

China and India continue to lead as the two main countries with the most students in the US, making up 53 percent of the international student population.

However, the proportion of students from each country has shifted compared to previous years, with 27 percent coming from China and 25 from India last year. Differently, in the 2017/18 academic year, 33 percent of students in the US were from China and 18 percent from India.

China is still the largest source of international students in the US, with 289,526 students attending higher education institutions in 2022/23. However, that was a two percent drop compared to the previous year.

India is the second largest sending country of students, reaching a record number of 268,923 students, up 35 percent from 2021/22,

In other words, during the 2022/23 academic year, international students accounted for six percent of the total student population in the US.

“International education is a vehicle that promotes peace and cross-cultural connections and provides the tools necessary to address the shared challenges of our time. It continues to shape the leaders of the future, both here at home and abroad, and we look forward to doing even more to attract international students to the United States and serve as the global leader in international education,” said Lee Satterfield, assistant US Secretary of State.

The report further unveils that the number of new students increased across all academic levels, with universities recording a 14 percent increase in students enrolling for the first time in 2022/23, reaching 298,523.

In 2021/22, the US hosted 948,519 international students, a slight increase of nearly four percent from 2020/21 when 914,095 students attended US universities. That was a 15 percent drop from 2019/20.

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