International student mobility worldwide
How many students from China study in Germany? What are the main countries of origin of international students in the US? With our interactive chart on international student mobility, you can answer these questions with just a few clicks, based on UNESCO student statistics. The term “international students” is used here to refer to students in a country who have entered the country to study (and hold a foreign higher education entrance qualification). “Students abroad” are students from one country who have left the country to study in another country. These are therefore the same people, only from different perspectives, once from the perspective of the host country (international students) and once from the perspective of the country of origin (students abroad). Please also note that only students intending to graduate in the respective host country are considered here, i.e. so-called degree mobility only.
First, select the country you are interested in as the host country or country of origin from the drop-down menu (default setting: Germany). If you are interested in the origin of the international students in the country in question, leave the mobility direction setting at “Incoming”. If, on the other hand, you are interested in the destination countries of the international students from that country, move the slider for the direction of mobility to “Outgoing”. In addition, you can select the status of the data via the “Year” slider; the data for the last five years of the UNESCO student statistics are available for selection here. Once you have made all the settings, you only have to confirm them with the button “Apply settings”. The data will then be displayed according to your selection in the three figures below the selection menu.
By clicking on the three dashes in the upper right corner of each figure, you can download the data as a figure or Excel data file (the figures are subject to a Creative Commons licence of the type CC-BY-SA). By clicking on the “Table” tab in the upper left-hand corner of the world map graphic, you can also call up the data as a table. With the plus or minus in the upper left corner of the world map graphic you can zoom in or out of the world map. With the four round symbols to the left of the world map graphic, you can link the page in social media (Facebook, X, LinkedIn) or send it as a link by e-mail.
Tip for advanced users: Under “Further settings”, you can choose between the display of absolute values (student numbers, default setting) and the display of share values (percentage shares of the respective total number of international students or students abroad in or from a country). With the second slider you can switch on and off the filling of individual missing values with the respective values from the previous year (default setting: On).
