Economic and Social Reports
Global classrooms: Changing patterns in postsecondary student flows between Canada and the United States

by Search for Statistics Canada publications by Feng Hou, Feng Hou, ORCID for Feng Hou, Yuqian Lu

DOI: https://doi.org/10.25318/36280001202501000002-eng

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Cross-border education—particularly at the bachelor’s and graduate degree levels—serves as both a driver of innovation and a barometer of talent flows in North America. While some students who study abroad continue to live and work in the country where they receive their postsecondary education, most may return after graduation and bring back skills, knowledge and new perspectives (Choi & Hou, 2025).^Note  Studying abroad not only shapes the educational and professional trajectories of individuals, but also has broader implications for talent retention, workforce development, and the economic competitiveness of both the sending and receiving countries.

For Canadian students, studying in the United States offers access to a wide array of world-class universities and specialized academic programs, as well as exposure to a diverse and dynamic cultural environment. The United States attracts Canadian students with its reputation for academic excellence and its potential pathways to employment in high-demand fields and long-term residency. Conversely, some U.S. students are attracted to Canadian universities by factors such as internationally recognized degree programs, lower tuition costs, and the appeal of Canada’s multicultural society and post-graduation work opportunities. It is also generally considered easier to gain acceptance into universities in Canada than in the United States—Canada’s top universities have higher overall admission rates, and the application process is simpler (Times Higher Education, n.d.).

Understanding the patterns and trends in educational exchanges between countries is critical for policy makers and academic institutions alike as they navigate the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly changing global landscape. After two decades of significant growth in the number of international students, Canada has implemented a cap on international study permits, limiting approvals to levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic (Government of Canada, 2025). Over the past decade, U.S. international student policy has shifted from a generally open and growth-oriented approach to periods of restriction that have had significant impacts on international student numbers, university finances and the global reputation of U.S. higher education. In particular, the United States has recently introduced significant restrictions on international student admissions, imposing country- and institution-specific bans and enhanced security screening (Knox, 2025). These recent policy changes are likely to reduce the flow of postsecondary students between the two countries.

This article compares recent trends in the numbers of students at the bachelor’s and graduate degree levels from Canada in the United States and from the United States in Canada, as well as their fields of study.

The data on Canadian citizens studying in the United States are drawn from the Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange by the Institute of International Education (IIE), which is a long-standing, comprehensive resource on international students and scholars in the United States (IIE, 2024).^Note  This article focuses on statistics about international students enrolled for academic credit at U.S. colleges or universities for undergraduate- or graduate-level study. An international student refers to anyone studying at an institution of higher education in the United States on a temporary visa that allows for academic coursework. The Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange defines “country of origin” in its international student statistics as the student’s country of citizenship.

The data on U.S. citizens studying in Canada are drawn from Statistics Canada’s Non-permanent Resident File (NPRF) and the Postsecondary Student Information System (PSIS). The NPRF provides counts of foreign residents holding valid study permits, along with their intended levels of study. The PSIS contains information on the level and field of study for all students enrolled in Canadian postsecondary institutions—either public or not-for-profit private institutions that are fully or partially funded by a province or territory.

In any given year, the number of study permit holders reported in the NPRF does not correspond exactly to the number of international students recorded in the PSIS, for several reasons. For example, some study permit holders at the postsecondary level are not enrolled in publicly funded postsecondary institutions (for instance, about 12% among those intending to pursue a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2019). Meanwhile, the PSIS count of international students includes not only study permit holders but also individuals with other visa statuses and those with no visa status (Choi & Hou, 2023).

In this article, the NPRF is used to show long-term trends in the number of study permit holders with U.S. citizenship who intended to study at the undergraduate and graduate levels from 2000 onward.^Note  The PSIS data are available starting in 2010 and are used to show the fields of study for enrolled undergraduate and graduate students.

As Chart 1 shows, the number of study permit holders with U.S. citizenship intending to study at the undergraduate and graduate levels in Canada increased gradually from about 5,000 in 2000 to 11,000 in 2019, then declined to about 10,000 in the early 2020s. Similar trends occurred at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. In most years, undergraduate students outnumbered graduate students by a factor of two to three.

The flow of Canadian students to the United States has been much larger than the flow in the opposite direction, although the difference has decreased since the early 2000s. The total number of Canadian undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in U.S. postsecondary institutions fluctuated between 21,500 and 27,400, with most of the variation driven by the number of graduate students. Unlike the composition of U.S. students in Canada, the number of Canadian graduate students in the United States was only slightly lower than the number of undergraduate students.

On an annual basis over the past two decades, Canada sent 4,900 to 9,900 more undergraduate students and 5,900 to 11,200 more graduate students to the United States than it received from the United States.

U.S. students in Canada and Canadian students in the United States also differed in their chosen fields of study (Table 1). U.S. students in Canada were highly concentrated in humanities and social sciences, which together accounted for 47% of U.S. students in the 2010/2011 academic year and 39% in 2022/2023, the most recent year of PSIS data. By comparison, Canadian students in the United States were relatively concentrated in business management and health professions, which together made up 31% of Canadian students in 2010/2011 and 29% in 2023/2024. Canadian students in the United States were also more likely to study engineering than U.S. students in Canada.

In summary, this article highlights the asymmetrical flow of undergraduate and graduate students between Canada and the United States, with significantly more Canadians pursuing degrees in the United States than vice versa. While both countries may benefit from cross-border educational exchanges that foster innovation and knowledge transfer, Canada generally sent more students to the United States than it received from the United States at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Most of these students may eventually return to Canada after graduation.^Note  The differing fields of study—U.S. students in Canada gravitating toward the humanities and social sciences, and Canadian students in the United States focusing more on business management, health professions and engineering—may reflect varying motivations for seeking education abroad and labour market demands.

Authors

Feng Hou and Yuqian Lu are with the Economic and Social Analysis and Modelling Division at Statistics Canada.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Sylvie Brunet, Felix Blain, Amélie Lafrance-Cooke, Andre Lebel and George Marshall for their advice and comments on an earlier version of this article.

References

Choi, Y., & Hou, F. (2023). Characteristics of postsecondary international students who did not enrol in publicly funded postsecondary education programs. Economic and Social Reports 3(11):1-7.

Choi, Y., & Hou, F. (2025). Retention of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and computer science graduates in Canada. Economic and Social Reports 5(7):1-7.

Government of Canada. (2025). 2025 provincial and territorial allocations under the international student cap. Accessed July 12, 2025.

IIE (Institute of International Education). (2024). Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange.

Knox, L. (2025). Where International Students Stand Now. Accessed July 13, 2025.

Times Higher Education. (n.d.). Finding your university: US versus Canada. Accessed July 12, 2025.