International student head count for students studying on a student visa. International student numbers are available from 2002, and can be disaggregated by state and nationality.
On this page:
Considerations for interpreting this data
- The international student number is a head count of all students that have studied on a student visa within a reference period. A student can thus be counted across multiple years if their period of study spans two or more years.
- The international student enrolments and commencements is a measure of the study activity a student does while on a student visa, and since a student can study more than one course in multiple sectors in a reference period, the enrolment and commencement count will always be greater than the student count.
- Since a student can move from provider to provider in different states, the total student count for Australia will not equal the total for all the states.
- There was a period of transition between a state based registration system for education providers and a nationally recognised registration system. For this transition period the study location for some students could not be determined and a 'Multi-State' state location was assigned for these students.
- Countries are listed by rank. Where countries have the same number of students, countries are assigned an equal rank and sorted by the country name.
- Ordinarily, all students studying on a student visa will be in Australia. While COVID-19 border closures were in place (2020–2022), many visa-holding students maintained their studies from outside Australia.
- Further information is available in the explanatory notes for data relating to international students studying in Australia.
Handy hints
- Use the year slider at the top to select different years. The latest year will only be up to the latest available month, while all previous years will be for the full calendar year.
- Select the state buttons on the left to choose the Australian total, or to select individual states.
- Using the scrollbar on the right allows display of all countries, with the bars scaling to allow easy interrogation of small student numbers.
- Hovering over the country bars will display the student number, growth from the same period last year, and the share of the overall market.
Source
Department of Education, PRISMS