Enrolment numbers for international students are heading in different directions on each side the Canadian and American border.

International students studying in the United States declined from 1,208,039 in March 2017 to 1,201,829 in March 2018.

This is a small decline percentage wise (.5%), but the first decline in recent history. International students studying in Canada in the first quarter of 2018 increased to 523,175 from 433,845 in the equivalent quarter in 2017 for a 20.6% increase.

Population wise, Canada is about 11% as big as the US, but we’re taking in International students equivalent to 43.5% of the US level in 2018 up from 35.9% in 2017.

Therefore, Canada is definitely more successful than the USA in relative terms in attracting International students.

The biggest change is the rapid increase in Indian students coming to Canada, up nearly 66% to 134,005 in one year. The USA hosts 209,349 Indian students, which was a 1% increase over the prior year.

However, across the board, Canada seems to be increasing more rapidly than the USA.

Data Sources:
US Data for March 2018 from the ICEF Monitor 23 May 2018 – ultimately from the SEVIS data report. Canadian data for the first quarter 2018 from IRCC located at open.canada.ca.

Brock Dykeman is the VP Academic at University Canada West (UCW). UCW is located in the heart of Vancouver, British Columbia. The university offers both online and on-campus Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Arts in Business Communication and MBA programs.