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Origins of International Students in the US, 2012

Good data on international students enrolled in the US is really hard to find.  There is this awful table of data from NCES, in which it's almost impossible to discern which groups are discreet and which are rolled up into other groups, for instance.  Other things on the web are very high-level with almost no granularity, and thus, almost no insight to be had.

This from the Institute of International Education is only slightly better, showing just the top ten countries of origins, but breaking enrollment out into four levels.  The top ten countries account for about 67% of all enrollments of international students, so it's robust, especially when you see the relative contribution of Turkey (#10) compared to China (#1).

Use the two filters to limit the all three views, but be sure to understand that the bottom two (showing different percents of total) start with just 67% of all international students, and the base decreases as you filter countries or levels out.


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