China no longer US' top source of international students

The number of Chinese students at U.S. colleges kept falling last academic year, as India has overtaken China as the top source for international students in the U.S. for the first time since 2009.

A Chinese student at New York University celebrates her graduation at Washington Square in Manhattan in May, 2021. Chinese News Service

A total of 331,602 Indians studied in the United States during the 2023-24 school year, compared with 277,398 Chinese, according to the latest annual survey issued Monday by the Institute of International Education (IIE), a report sponsored by the U.S. State Department.

Indian students saw a 23% increase from the previous academic year, while Chinese students saw a 4% decrease. 

Overall, the number of foreign students in the United States rose 7% to more than 1.1 million, surpassing the all-time high set just prior to the pandemic. 

Most international students in U.S. higher education pursue science, technology, engineering or math programs. About 25% studied math and computer science, while nearly one in five opted for engineering.

A comparison bar chart of the number of Chinese and Indian students in U.S. colleges from the academic years 2019-20 to 2023-24. Data source: IIE Open Doors

China and India combined account for more than half of all international students in the United States at the graduate and undergraduate levels. 

Chinese students had been the largest foreign group since the 2009-10 school year, but their numbers have steadily declined from 2019-20 onward, when there were 372,532 Chinese studying in the United States.

Meanwhile, Indian students have seen a steady growth in numbers since the 2020-21 academic year, with the total for 2023-24 about twice as large as it was then.

The shift in rankings comes as U.S. government officials signal a preference for Indians over Chinese in certain fields because of national security concerns. In June, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said he would like to see more Chinese students coming “to study the humanities and social sciences, not particle physics.”