Flow of international students to OECD countries is on the decline

OECD member countries, including the top destinations of US, UK, Canada and Australia continued to attract international students , but in 2024, the number of international students fell for the first time, after three years of steady growth. Only 1.8 million new tertiary-level (universities, colleges, and vocational higher education programs) were hosted by OECD member countries - 13% fewer than in 2023.

As in previous years, US and UK remained the top destinations, issuing approximately 3.90 lakh and 3.84 lakh student permits respectively. They were followed by Canada (2.13 lakh) and Australia (1.82 lakh). Together, these four countries accounted for 65% of all international student inflows to the OECD in 2024.

Notably, all four of the top host countries saw year-on-year declines in 2024, the first such drop since the Covid-19 pandemic. Canada and Australia experienced the steepest decreases, with declines of 39% and 22%, respectively.

Data of source countries is available for 2023. China and India constituted 17% and 14% of the total enrolled international students in the tertiary-education space.

India has recorded the sharpest rise in overseas tertiary enrolments among all OECD-bound students. Between 2014 and 2023, the number of Indian students studying in OECD countries quadrupled — from about 1.7 lakh to 7.1 lakh — overtaking China as the top source of foreign university students . By contrast, Chinese student numbers grew only 20 percent over the same period from 7.04 lakh to 8.43 lakh.

Top 5 countries of origin of international tertiary-level students in OECD countries: