Where America’s 1.2 Million International Students Come From

Where Do America’s 1.2 Million International Students Come From?

According to the IIE Open Doors 2025 report, 1.18 million international students studied at U.S. colleges and universities in 2024/25, up 5% year-over-year.

That was a record total, equivalent to roughly 6% of U.S. higher education enrollment. The longer-term rise has coincided with immigration becoming an increasingly important component of population growth across many U.S. states.

India Pulls Ahead of China

The following table shows international students by place of origin, based on data from the Institute of International Education.

Country	Enrollment in 2023/24	Enrollment in 2024/25	% of Total (2024/25)	% Change
India	331,602	363,019	30.82	9.5
China	277,398	265,919	22.58	-4.1
South Korea	43,149	42,293	3.59	-2.0
Canada	28,998	29,903	2.54	3.1
Vietnam	22,066	25,584	2.17	15.9
Nepal	16,742	24,890	2.11	48.7
Taiwan	23,157	23,263	1.98	0.5
Nigeria	20,029	21,847	1.86	9.1
Bangladesh	17,099	20,156	1.71	17.9
Brazil	16,877	17,277	1.47	2.4
Mexico	15,474	15,652	1.33	1.2
Japan	13,959	13,814	1.17	-1.0
Pakistan	10,988	13,165	1.12	19.8
Ghana	9,394	12,825	1.09	36.5
Saudi Arabia	14,828	12,702	1.08	-14.3
Iran	12,430	12,656	1.07	1.8
United Kingdom	10,473	11,136	0.95	6.3
Colombia	10,120	10,213	0.87	0.9
Turkey/Türkiye	9,148	9,413	0.80	2.9
Spain	8,842	9,229	0.78	4.4
Germany	9,230	9,123	0.77	-1.2
France	8,543	8,698	0.74	1.8
Indonesia	8,348	8,104	0.69	-2.9
Italy	6,545	6,744	0.57	3.0
Peru	5,505	5,667	0.48	2.9
Hong Kong	5,627	5,492	0.47	-2.4
Kenya	4,507	5,337	0.45	18.4
Thailand	5,310	5,022	0.43	-5.4
Kuwait	5,102	5,018	0.43	-1.6
Russia	5,071	4,948	0.42	-2.4
Australia	4,432	4,620	0.39	4.2
Philippines	4,100	4,573	0.39	11.5
Egypt	4,280	4,518	0.38	5.6
Malaysia	4,816	4,485	0.38	-6.9
Singapore	4,574	4,449	0.38	-2.7
Venezuela	3,904	3,886	0.33	-0.5
Burma	3,222	3,744	0.32	16.2
Sri Lanka	3,424	3,661	0.31	6.9
Jamaica	3,185	3,416	0.29	7.3
Ethiopia	3,078	3,395	0.29	10.3
Argentina	3,101	3,335	0.28	7.5
Ecuador	3,256	3,282	0.28	0.8
Kazakhstan	2,712	3,102	0.26	14.4
Chile	3,113	3,092	0.26	-0.7
South Africa	2,814	2,952	0.25	4.9
Jordan	2,643	2,768	0.24	4.7
Bahamas	2,513	2,764	0.23	10.0
Zimbabwe	1,907	2,712	0.23	42.2
Sweden	2,572	2,665	0.23	3.6
Greece	2,561	2,641	0.22	3.1
Honduras	2,532	2,548	0.22	0.6
Netherlands	2,546	2,462	0.21	-3.3
Ukraine	2,183	2,346	0.20	7.5
Israel	2,167	2,266	0.19	4.6
Panama	2,128	2,233	0.19	4.9
Mongolia	1,671	1,991	0.17	19.2
Morocco	1,784	1,975	0.17	10.7
Lebanon	1,987	1,826	0.16	-8.1
Poland	1,661	1,809	0.15	8.9
United Arab Emirates	1,571	1,808	0.15	15.1
Congo, Dem. Rep. of the (Kinshasa)	1,738	1,794	0.15	3.2
New Zealand	1,696	1,781	0.15	5.0
Norway	1,692	1,617	0.14	-4.4
Dominican Republic	1,542	1,582	0.13	2.6
Uganda	1,303	1,495	0.13	14.7
Bolivia	1,357	1,463	0.12	7.8
Costa Rica	1,431	1,461	0.12	2.1
Trinidad and Tobago	1,334	1,419	0.12	6.4
Ireland	1,423	1,404	0.12	-1.3
Oman	1,748	1,401	0.12	-19.9
Kyrgyzstan	977	1,386	0.12	41.9
El Salvador	1,451	1,384	0.12	-4.6
Switzerland	1,383	1,382	0.12	-0.1
Rwanda	1,311	1,359	0.12	3.7
Guatemala	1,352	1,344	0.11	-0.6
Azerbaijan	1,130	1,329	0.11	17.6
Uzbekistan	1,219	1,310	0.11	7.5
Cambodia	997	1,201	0.10	20.5
Côte d’Ivoire	1,138	1,188	0.10	4.4
Albania	1,187	1,184	0.10	-0.3
Cameroon	981	1,181	0.10	20.4
Denmark	1,329	1,172	0.10	-11.8
Tanzania	1,027	1,140	0.10	11.0
Portugal	1,111	1,137	0.10	2.3
Belgium	1,037	1,059	0.09	2.1
Austria	1,017	1,043	0.09	2.6
Georgia	991	1,040	0.09	4.9
Romania	902	956	0.08	6.0
Serbia	894	940	0.08	5.1
Haiti	883	896	0.08	1.5
Hungary	758	848	0.07	11.9
Czech Republic	803	840	0.07	4.6
Tunisia	717	769	0.07	7.3
Zambia	597	743	0.06	24.5
Afghanistan	702	712	0.06	1.4
Nicaragua	618	696	0.06	12.6
Paraguay	642	665	0.06	3.6
Bulgaria	576	612	0.05	6.3
Malawi	502	610	0.05	21.5
Iraq	476	572	0.05	20.2
Finland	482	543	0.05	12.7
Armenia	497	525	0.04	5.6
Bosnia and Herzegovina	247	517	0.04	109.3
Palestinian Territories	466	500	0.04	7.3
Senegal	508	498	0.04	-2.0
Angola	511	478	0.04	-6.5
Sierra Leone	385	462	0.04	20.0
Uruguay	420	451	0.04	7.4
Turkmenistan	380	447	0.04	17.6
Cyprus	409	438	0.04	7.1
Bahrain	335	438	0.04	30.7
Syria	385	434	0.04	12.7
Gambia, The	363	430	0.04	18.5
Algeria	364	426	0.04	17.0
Sudan	398	417	0.04	4.8
Dominica	406	414	0.04	2.0
Belarus	389	411	0.03	5.7
Macau	408	397	0.03	-2.7
Belize	416	382	0.03	-8.2
Croatia	390	369	0.03	-5.4
Slovakia	326	366	0.03	12.3
Qatar	388	350	0.03	-9.8
Guyana	365	344	0.03	-5.8
Lithuania	322	343	0.03	6.5
Libya	365	333	0.03	-8.8
Iceland	328	320	0.03	-2.4
Burkina Faso	299	309	0.03	3.3
Botswana	273	303	0.03	11.0
Barbados	282	296	0.03	5.0
Liberia	261	290	0.02	11.1
Latvia	262	271	0.02	3.4
Benin	260	267	0.02	2.7
Yemen	256	258	0.02	0.8
Madagascar	240	251	0.02	4.6
Mali	239	249	0.02	4.2
Togo	240	247	0.02	2.9
Mauritius	258	239	0.02	-7.4
Slovenia	199	236	0.02	18.6
Gabon	250	235	0.02	-6.0
Tajikistan	198	234	0.02	18.2
Bhutan	184	228	0.02	23.9
Bermuda	237	228	0.02	-3.8
Burundi	199	220	0.02	10.6
Eswatini	210	219	0.02	4.3
Niger	171	219	0.02	28.1
Equatorial Guinea	234	217	0.02	-7.3
Saint Lucia	197	216	0.02	9.6
Estonia	195	208	0.02	6.7
Saint Kitts and Nevis	193	208	0.02	7.8
North Macedonia	206	205	0.02	-0.5
Grenada	160	200	0.02	25.0
Mozambique	175	198	0.02	13.1
Tonga	185	195	0.02	5.4
Kosovo	189	190	0.02	0.5
Antigua and Barbuda	183	186	0.02	1.6
Congo, Republic of the (Brazzaville)	180	178	0.02	-1.1
Montenegro	148	169	0.01	14.2
Fiji	156	165	0.01	5.8
Cayman Islands	157	164	0.01	4.5
Moldova	154	154	0.01	0.0
South Sudan	96	137	0.01	42.7
Luxembourg	108	133	0.01	23.1
Somalia	117	128	0.01	9.4
Laos	114	124	0.01	8.8
Papua New Guinea	109	118	0.01	8.3
Chad	66	115	0.01	74.2
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	104	112	0.01	7.7
Malta	72	97	0.01	34.7
Namibia	82	95	0.01	15.9
Cuba	117	91	0.01	-22.2
Guinea	78	83	0.01	6.4
Sint Maarten	72	81	0.01	12.5
Eritrea	73	80	0.01	9.6
Samoa	76	75	0.01	-1.3
Lesotho	75	70	0.01	-6.7
Aruba	58	69	0.01	19.0
French Polynesia	60	66	0.01	10.0
British Virgin Islands	45	61	0.01	35.6
Palau	33	58	0.005	75.8
Cabo Verde	51	57	0.005	11.8
Kiribati	61	56	0.005	-8.2
Micronesia, Federated States of	28	52	0.004	85.7
Timor-Leste	29	47	0.004	62.1
Suriname	46	45	0.004	-2.2
Maldives	33	42	0.004	27.3
Turks and Caicos	40	40	0.003	0.0
Mauritania	38	37	0.003	-2.6
Curacao	50	37	0.003	-26.0
Monaco	17	32	0.003	88.2
Brunei	33	31	0.003	-6.1
Marshall Islands, Republic of the	10	30	0.003	200.0
Andorra	22	28	0.002	27.3
Comoros	56	22	0.002	-60.7
Cook Islands	11	18	0.002	63.6
Vanuatu	12	18	0.002	50.0
Liechtenstein	16	17	0.001	6.3
Seychelles	17	16	0.001	-5.9
Djibouti	9	13	0.001	44.4
Anguilla	8	12	0.001	50.0
Stateless	13	12	0.001	-7.7
Central African Republic	20	11	0.001	-45.0
Guinea-Bissau	11	9	0.001	-18.2
Martinique	7	8	0.001	14.3
Solomon Islands	5	8	0.001	60.0
Gibraltar	12	7	0.001	-41.7
Reunion	8	6	0.001	-25.0
Guadeloupe	4	6	0.001	50.0
French Guiana	1	4	0.0003	300.0
Niue	1	4	0.0003	300.0
San Marino	2	3	0.0003	50.0
Tuvalu	2	3	0.0003	50.0
Europe, Unspecified	0	2	0.0002	—
Montserrat	3	2	0.0002	-33.3
New Caledonia	1	2	0.0002	100.0
São Tomé and Príncipe	0	1	0.0001	—
Saint Helena	3	1	0.0001	-66.7
Wallis and Futuna	0	1	0.0001	—
Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas	2	0	0.0000	-100.0
World Total	1,126,690	1,177,766	100	—

India widened its lead as the largest source of international students in the U.S. Its student population rose 9.5% to 363,019, while China’s fell 4.1% to 265,919.

Nepal (+48.7%), Ghana (+36.5%), and Pakistan (+19.8%) were among the fastest-growing major sources.

A Record Total Masks a Changing Pipeline

Despite the record number of international students in 2024/25, signs of slower growth were already emerging. The overall total was partly supported by Optional Practical Training (OPT), which allows eligible graduates to work temporarily in their field of study. OPT participation jumped 21% to 294,253, while new international enrollment fell 7%.

Indian and Chinese students, among other nationalities, value the U.S. OPT program because it allows eligible graduates to gain work experience after graduation and can provide a pathway toward H-1B sponsorship.

That divergence became more pronounced in fall 2025. IIE’s snapshot of 828 U.S. institutions found that new international enrollment fell 17% from the previous year. Graduate enrollment declined 12%, while undergraduate enrollment rose 2% and OPT participation increased 14%.

Policy and Campus Experience Add Uncertainty

Visa rules are only part of the picture. A 2024 survey cited by the Migration Policy Institute found that 60% of 1,252 Chinese graduate students surveyed reported discrimination on campus. The study focused mainly on students in STEM fields, while many respondents also cited educational quality and life experience as reasons for choosing the United States.

Policy uncertainty has also increased. Recent changes and proposals have included tighter visa screening and restrictions affecting international students, although some measures have faced legal challenges. Along with growing competition from universities abroad, these factors could influence where future international students choose to study.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

For another look at American higher education, see Ranked: Median Student Debt for a U.S. College Degree on the Voronoi app.

• Source: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/americas-1-2-million-internationa-students-come-from/