Misc
Where Do International Students in the U.S. Come From?
Where Do International Students in the U.S. Come From?
The proportion of international students in U.S. higher education institutions has increased steadily, from 1.5% of the country’s total students in the 1960s to 5.5% in the early 2020s.
Using 2022 data from the International Education Exchange (IIE), this visualization from Ehsan Soltani breaks down where these students come from.
The International Student Population
The United States has always attracted students seeking quality education at its many world-class universities and opportunities in the country’s job market.
After a drop in recent years due to COVID-19 restrictions, American institutions registered a 3.8% increase in international student participation in 2022.
There were 948,519 international students at U.S. colleges and universities last year.
Asian students represent 75% of the total, with Chinese (30%) and Indians (21%) adding up to over half the count. Oceania is the place of origin with the fewest international students enrolled in the U.S., making up only 0.6% of the total.
Place of Origin | 1950 | 1970 | 1990 | 2020 | 2022 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Oceania | 198 | 2,077 | 4,010 | 7,473 | 5,994 |
Africa | 901 | 7,607 | 24,570 | 48,679 | 49,308 |
Europe | 5,569 | 18,524 | 46,040 | 78,321 | 72,604 |
Americas | 10,406 | 38,406 | 66,680 | 106,196 | 104,982 |
India | 1,359 | 11,329 | 26,240 | 193,124 | 199,182 |
China | - | 19 | 33,390 | 372,532 | 290,086 |
Rest of Asia | 7,707 | 52,963 | 185,810 | 269,164 | 226,351 |
According to Open Doors, for the first time in a decade, there were more graduate students (41%) than undergraduates (36%) studying in the United States in 2022.
Institutional Type | Number of Students (2022) |
---|---|
Doctorate-granting Universities | 738,555 |
Master's Colleges and Universities | 105,680 |
Baccalaureate Colleges | 35,569 |
Associate's Colleges | 49,099 |
Special Focus Institutions | 19,616 |
Total | 948,519 |
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many colleges and universities have started to offer online courses. Still, the vast majority of students attended classes in person last year.
A Billionaire Business
International students continue to be a priority for the U.S. higher education sector, contributing $32 billion to the country’s economy in 2022.
With the demographic decline in U.S. domestic higher education enrollment, many colleges and universities are strategically focusing on international students.
According to IIE, 89% of U.S. colleges and universities indicated that 2023/24 applications are up or have stayed the same as the previous year.

This article was published as a part of Visual Capitalist's Creator Program, which features data-driven visuals from some of our favorite Creators around the world.
Politics
How Much Do Americans Trust the Media?
Media trust among Americans has reached its lowest point since Trump won the 2016 presidential election.

How Much Do Americans Trust the Media?
Media trust among Americans has reached its lowest point in six years.
Gallup began its survey on media trust in 1972, repeating it in 1974 and 1976. After a long period, the public opinion firm restarted the polls in 1997 and has asked Americans about their confidence level in the mass media—newspapers, TV, and radio—almost every year since then.
The above graphic illustrates Gallup’s latest poll results, conducted in September 2023.
Americans’ Trust in Mass Media, 1972-2023
Americans’ confidence in the mass media has sharply declined over the last few decades.
Trust in the mass media | % Great deal/Fair amount | % Not very much | % None at all |
---|---|---|---|
1972 | 68 | 24 | 6 |
1974 | 69 | 21 | 8 |
1976 | 72 | 22 | 4 |
1997 | 53 | 31 | 15 |
1998 | 55 | 35 | 9 |
1999 | 55 | 34 | 11 |
2000 | 51 | 37 | 12 |
2001 | 53 | 33 | 14 |
2002 | 54 | 35 | 11 |
2003 | 54 | 35 | 11 |
2004 | 44 | 39 | 16 |
2005 | 50 | 37 | 12 |
2007 | 47 | 35 | 17 |
2008 | 43 | 35 | 21 |
2009 | 45 | 37 | 18 |
2010 | 43 | 36 | 21 |
2011 | 44 | 36 | 19 |
2012 | 40 | 39 | 21 |
2013 | 44 | 33 | 22 |
2014 | 40 | 36 | 24 |
2015 | 40 | 36 | 24 |
2016 | 32 | 41 | 27 |
2017 | 41 | 29 | 29 |
2018 | 45 | 30 | 24 |
2019 | 41 | 30 | 28 |
2020 | 40 | 27 | 33 |
2021 | 36 | 29 | 34 |
2022 | 34 | 28 | 38 |
2023 | 32 | 29 | 39 |
In 2016, the number of respondents trusting media outlets fell below the tally of those who didn’t trust the media at all. This is the first time that has happened in the poll’s history.
That year was marked by sharp criticism of the media from then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.
In 2017, the use of the term ‘fake news’ rose by 365% on social media, and the term was named the word of the year by dictionary publisher Collins.
The Lack of Faith in Institutions and Social Media
Although there’s no single reason to explain the decline of trust in the traditional media, some studies point to potential drivers.
According to Michael Schudson, a sociologist and historian of the news media and a professor at the Columbia Journalism School, in the 1970s, faith in institutions like the White House or Congress began to decline, consequently impacting confidence in the media.
“That may have been a necessary corrective to a sense of complacency that had been creeping in—among the public and the news media—that allowed perhaps too much trust: we accepted President Eisenhower’s lies about the U-2 spy plane, President Kennedy’s lies about the ‘missile gap,’ President Johnson’s lies about the war in Vietnam, President Nixon’s lies about Watergate,”
Michael Schudson – Columbia Journalism School
More recently, the internet and social media have significantly changed how people consume media. The rise of platforms such as X/Twitter and Facebook have also disrupted the traditional media status quo.
Partisans’ Trust in Mass Media
Historically, Democrats have expressed more confidence in the media than Republicans.
Democrats’ trust, however, has fallen 12 points over the past year to 58%, compared with 11% among Republicans and 29% among independents.
According to Gallup, Republicans’ low confidence in the media has little room to worsen, but Democrat confidence could still deteriorate and bring the overall national reading down further.
The poll also shows that young Democrats have less confidence in the media than older Democrats, while Republicans are less varied in their views by age group.
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