June 2015	
International students in Australia up to 2014
This snapshot provides a detailed analysis of the total number of international students who have studied in Australia on student visas from 2002 to 2014, as well as an estimate of how many students studied in Australia before 2002. The 2002 to 2014 data are presented as two student cohorts: those who were commencing or continuing students in 2014; and those who were students before 2014 and were not continuing to study in 2014.
Just over 1,859,000 international students have undertaken study in Australia in the thirteen years from 2002 to 2014, including 1,405,535 who were no longer studying in 2014. China was the largest source of all these students, contributing 18.6 per cent. India and the United States were the next largest contributing nationalities with 10.2 per cent and 6.5 per cent respectively. Nationalities in the top ten countries combined represented 63.8 per cent of all international students who have studied in Australia.
The ongoing strong growth in student numbers over the 2002 to 2014 period is demonstrated by the fact that 35 per cent of the students from China who have ever studied in Australia (since 2002) were studying here in 2014. The equivalent figure for Vietnam was 44 per cent, the highest proportion across the top ten source countries. Across all nationalities combined, 24 per cent of all students who had studied in Australia since 2002 were studying in 2014.
Table 1 show there were slightly more international male students to females at 51.7 per cent and 48.3 per cent respectively, across all nationalities from 2002 to 2014. However, the gender distribution varied with student nationality. Seven out of ten (74.5%) students from India were male. In contrast, two in three (66.7%) students from Japan were female.
The major source of international students studying in Australia from 2002 to 2014 is Asia, which accounted for two thirds (67.3%) of the international student population. This is followed by the Americas and North-West Europe accounting for 14.4 per cent and 9.1 per cent respectively of international students in Australia.
Prior to 2002, it was estimated that over 420,000 students studied in Australia up to 2001, including 40,000 students on scholarships under the original Colombo Plan up until 1985. Further, it is estimated that over 580,000 English language students were studying on non-student visas over the period 2002 to 2014 and a further 160,000 over the period 1996 to 2001. On this basis, over 3 million international students have studied in Australia up to 2014.
Table 1. International student numbers by gender	
Nationality	Student cohort	Total	Student gender	
	Pre-2014	2014		Female	Male	
China	224,787	121,318	346,105 	181,165	164,940	
India	142,683	46,380	189,063	48,299	140,764	
USA	111,053	9,204	120,257	74,126	46,131	
South Korea	95,310	20,178	115,488	60,867	54,621	
Malaysia	69,675	19,201	88,876	45,228	43,648	
Japan	68,541	9,067	77,608	51,513	26,095	
Thailand	53,393	16,115	69,508	41,205	28,303	
Indonesia	51,899	13,726	65,625	31,547	34,078	
Brazil	48,390	14,970	63,360	28,760	34,600	
Vietnam	27,623	21,987	49,610	25,648	23,962	
Other Nationalities	512,181	161,386	673,567	309,252	364,315	
All Nationalities	1,405,535	453,532	1,859,067	897,606	961,452