Non-Resident Alien Student Population Trends at U.S. Colleges (2010-2019)

A non-resident alien is a person who is not a U.S. citizen or U.S. national. A nonresident alien is an alien who has not passed the green card test or the substantial presence test (more information at IRS). Generally, in U.S. colleges, a student with F-1 or J-1 visa status will not meet the substantial test for 5 years and so the student is categorized a non-resident alien. Sometimes the international student refers to the non-resident alien. For academic year 2019-2020, 994,438 non-resident alien students (4.90% of total 20,274,611 students) have enrolled in U.S. colleges. In undergraduate programs, there are 567,212 non-resident alien students and 427,226 students have enrolled in graduate programs.

The non-resident alien student population have been increased from 683,055 (3.22%) to 994,438 (4.90%) for last 10 years (2010-2019). Next table and chart show the number of enrolled non-resident alien students for both undergraduate and graduate programs.

Non-resident Alien Student Population Trends (2010-2019)

	Total		Undergraduate		Graduate
	Total	Non-Resident Alien	Total	Non-Resident Alien	Total	Non-Resident Alien
2010	21,196,198	683,055 (3.22%)	18,293,035	375,686 (2.05%)	2,903,163	307,369 (10.59%)
2011	21,949,200	708,919 (3.23%)	18,964,919	398,877 (2.10%)	2,984,281	310,042 (10.39%)
2012	21,897,778	744,153 (3.40%)	18,916,930	425,415 (2.25%)	2,980,848	318,738 (10.69%)
2013	21,462,233	786,202 (3.66%)	18,508,688	451,563 (2.44%)	2,953,545	334,639 (11.33%)
2014	21,169,912	844,244 (3.99%)	18,223,414	485,195 (2.66%)	2,946,498	359,049 (12.19%)
2015	20,986,793	921,580 (4.39%)	18,025,422	530,630 (2.94%)	2,961,371	390,950 (13.20%)
2016	20,713,641	987,060 (4.77%)	17,726,560	567,797 (3.20%)	2,987,081	419,263 (14.04%)
2017	20,531,808	1,001,211 (4.88%)	17,513,251	571,360 (3.26%)	3,018,557	429,851 (14.24%)
2018	20,411,008	1,003,091 (4.91%)	17,360,811	576,134 (3.32%)	3,050,197	426,957 (14.00%)
2019	20,274,611	994,438 (4.90%)	17,191,867	567,212 (3.30%)	3,082,744	427,226 (13.86%)

Non-resident Alien Student Population Trends Chart (2010-2019)