World Migration Report 2024: Chapter 2
International students
The number of internationally mobile students globally has significantly increased over the last two decades, as highlighted by data collected by UNESCO.33 In 2001, this number was at just over 2.2 million. A decade later, the number of internationally mobile students had grown to more than 3.8 million. This number continued to increase in the following years, rising to over 6 million in 2021, nearly triple the figure 20 years prior. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and related mobility restrictions, the number of internationally mobile students remained strong (Figure 13). Between 2020 and 2021 – at the height of the pandemic – the number of internationally mobile students increased slightly (from 6.38 million to 6.39 million), defying expectations.
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, n.d. (accessed 15 September 2023).
Historically, the population of internationally mobile students has been gendered, with male students consistently outnumbering female students. In 2001, there were around 1 million internationally mobile female students (45% of the total) and 1.2 million male students (54%). While this gap has narrowed over the last 20 years, the number of internationally mobile female students remains lower than that of male students (Figure 14). In 2021, around 3 million internationally mobile students were female (47%) and males comprised around 3.4 million (52%).
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, n.d. (accessed 15 September 2023).
Countries in Asia are the origins of the largest number of internationally mobile students in the world. In 2021, more than 1 million internationally mobile students were from China, by far the highest number globally and more than double the number of students from India, which ranks second (around 508,000). Other significant origin countries include Viet Nam, Germany and Uzbekistan (around 100,000 each), although their numbers are far fewer than the top two origin countries. The United States is the largest destination country for internationally mobile students in the world (more than 833,000). The United States is followed by the United Kingdom (nearly 601,000), Australia (around 378,000), Germany (over 376,000) and Canada (nearly 318,000).
IOM’s Health Assessment Programme
IOM’s Migrant Health Assessment Programme provides pre-migration health activities to beneficiaries around the world. In 2022, over 904,000 migration health assessments were conducted, of which 15 per cent were among refugees and 85 per cent were among immigrants. This represented the highest annual number of migration health assessments in the programme’s history and demonstrated its remarkable caseload increase following a reduction due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
IOM’s Migration Health Division delivers and promotes comprehensive, preventive and curative health programming that is beneficial, accessible and equitable for migrants and mobile populations. Bridging the needs of both migrants and IOM Member States, the Division, in close collaboration with partners, contributes towards the physical, mental and social well-being of migrants, enabling them and host communities to achieve social and economic development.
More about IOM’s Migration Health function can be found at www.iom.int/migration-health.