An updated Global Affairs Canada (GAC) analysis found that the combined GDP contribution of international students was $30.9 billion for 2022, which was largely drawn from their $37.3 spending on “tuition, accommodation, and discretionary items.”
ICEF Monitor reported that education exports, measured by the total value of international students in Canada, amounted to 23 per cent of Canada’s total service exports for 2022, and 1.2 per cent of its GDP overall.
Furthermore, in 2022, total international student spending exceeded the value of Canada’s exports in many product categories, such as wood and wood products ($25.7 billion), fertilizers ($17.9 billion), or electrical or electronic machinery and equipment ($19.2 billion).
“Over the past two decades, the number of study permit holders in Canada increased more than sixfold, with every province and territory recording positive gains,” according to the report by GAC.
“Although Ontario attracted the greatest number of international students, it is worth noting that Prince Edward Island recorded the highest percentage increase in the number of study permit holders – from 2000 to 2022, the percentage increase has been over 1,800 per cent.”
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According to Statista, there were 807,260 international students in Canada at the end of 2022. In the same year, foreign enrolment grew by more than 30 per cent.
India was the largest source country for international students, with there being just under 320,000 Indian students with active study permits at the end of the year.
Other top source countries for long-term international students that experienced strong increase between 2021 and 2022 include Philippines (+112 per cent to 32,455), Hong Kong (+73 per cent to 13,100), Nigeria (+60 per cent to 21,660), and Colombia (+54 per cent to 12,440).
According to GAC, 97 per cent of the economic impact on Canada in 2022 was due to long-term students, who are students enrolled in programmes that last for six months or more.
For university, on a per-student average basis, international students spent $53,800 in the long term.
For 2024, Canada is looking to stabilize growth and decrease the number of new study permits issued to approximately 360,000.
This, according to the immigration ministry, is a means to restore the lost “integrity” of the international student system, which the department claims has been threatened recently.
Individual provincial and territorial caps have been established “in the spirit of fairness,” weighted by population, which will result in much more significant decreases in provinces where the international student population has seen the most unsustainable growth.
The temporary measures will be in place for two years, and the number of new study permit applications will be reassessed at the end of the year.
