China outbound mobile students
1,076,015UIS · 2023Population, society and living standards · student mobility
Where the world goes to study
This is a flow map rather than a same-year league table. Each UIS country pair uses its latest available observation since 2019. Because UIS lacks source-country detail for China as a destination, the top 15 2018 origins published by China’s Ministry of Education are added with a distinct visual treatment.
42countries / areas240 visible flows
UIS inbound total for China
194,327UIS · 2024MOE international students in China
492,185MOE · 2018Reference years in network
2018—2024year retained per linkWHERE THE WORLD GOES TO STUDY
China and global student flows
Line width approximates student volume. Click a country to focus its links. Coral dashed links are the separate 2018 China inbound supplement from the Ministry of Education.
UNESCO UIS: latest pair observation since 2019MOE: top 15 origins to China, 2018China
chinainfigures.comNote: link reference years differ. Use this graphic to read the broad structure of flows, not as a strict same-year comparison.
Global destinations
Largest destinations for mobile students
Every bar retains that destination’s actual latest reference year; this is not a single-year ranking.
Where students from China go
Leading destinations for students from China
1United States of America2023266,587
2United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland2023156,481
3Australia2024128,417
4China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region202466,997
5Canada202364,584
6Republic of Korea202462,192
7Malaysia202455,628
8Russian Federation202346,046
9China, Macao Special Administrative Region202439,132
10Germany202436,655
How to read this graphic
How to compare data from different years
Every link keeps its own year
We preserve more real connections instead of discarding them to force one common year. UIS links use each country pair’s latest positive observation since 2019.
Missing is not zero
If UIS has no bilateral observation for a country pair, the chart does not invent a zero-valued link.
China inbound supplement is separate
The Ministry of Education 2018 “international students in China” concept is broader than UIS tertiary mobility, so those links are coral/dashed and are not treated as a directly comparable UIS series.
Downloads and revisions
Use the data and track changes
The page CSV retains years, units, source IDs, verification status and comparability warnings. Each chart also offers its current data as CSV, PNG or SVG.
Page data
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Includes registered formal points, available historical series and scalar derived metrics. UTF-8 encoded for spreadsheets and analysis tools.
Download CSV ↓Data file updated: 16 Oct 2026
Citation
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The title, latest formal data year and source organizations come from existing publication metadata; the access date and current page URL are added when you click.
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Public record
Revision and update timeline
International student mobility visualisation added
Added a mixed-latest-year UIS bilateral student-mobility network, latest global destination totals, China outbound destinations and clearly separated MOE 2018 inbound-to-China origin context.
Related sources: UNESCO Institute for Statistics ↗ · Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China ↗
Sources and definitions registered; automated checks passed
Data downloads and revision timeline added
Added page-level formal-data CSV files, chart-level CSV/PNG/SVG exports and a bilingual revision timeline to all indicator pages.
Sources and definitions registered; automated checks passed