According to the latest Open Doors report from the Institute on International Education, from 2020 to 2021, the number of students from foreign nations studying in the United States decreased significantly due to the COIVD-19 pandemic. Two years ago there was a slight increase of 3.8 percent. In the 2022-23 academic year, the number of international students increased from 948,519 to 1,057,188, an increase of 11.5 percent. For the 2023-24 academic year, there were 1,126,690 foreign students at U.S. colleges and universities, a 6.6 percent increase from the previous year
There were more than 56,780 students from sub-Saharan African nations at U.S. colleges and universities during the 2023-24 academic year. This was an increase of more than 13 percent after a whopping increase of more than 18 percent in the previous year.
Among sub-Saharan African nations, Nigeria in 2023-24 sent the most students to American colleges and universities. That year, there were 20,209 Nigerians studying here, up 13.5 percent. In the 2013-14 academic year, there were just 7,921 Nigerian students at U.S. colleges and universities. Thus, over the past decade, there has been a 155 percent increase in Nigerian students at American universities. The number of students from Nigeria was more than double the number of students from any other sub-Saharan African nation. Nigerians made up more than one third of all students from sub-Saharan Africa who studied in the United States in the 2023-24 academic year.
In 2023-24, Ghana ranked second, sending 9,394 students to the United States, This was up more than 45 percent from the previous year after a 31.6 percent increase the previous year. Kenya ranked third this year. There were 4,507 students from Kenya at U.S. colleges and universities, up 11 percent from the previous year.
Ethiopia sent more than 3,000 students to study in the United States, an increase of 2.4 percent. South Africa was not too far behind with 2,814 students at U.S. colleges and universities. Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Cote d’Ivoire each had more than 1,000 students studying in the United States. Other nations sending more than 500 students to study in the United States were Cameroon, Angola, Malawi, and Senegal.
All told, 51 nations from sub-Saharan Africa had college students studying in the U.S. during the 2023-24 academic year.
Undoubtedly, some of these students from sub-Saharan African nations such as South Africa and Zimbabwe are White, but there is no data to report on the racial or ethnic makeup of this group of African students at U.S. colleges and universities.
