International student monthly summary and data tables

International student data is published monthly, giving the latest available data on students studying on a student visa. This visualisation allows selection of the current, as well as previous monthly and annual, international student monthly summaries.

International student monthly summary

Use the report to explore different views of data on enrolments, commencements and student numbers by month, year, education sector, source country and state/territory.

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International Students - Monthly Summary Graph December 2024

Key points

In year-to-date July 2025 there were 925,905 international student enrolments, a 1 per cent decline in enrolments on the same period in 2024.
The Higher Education sector still had growth in enrolments on 2024 (9%), followed by Schools (5%), while all other sectors showed declines, notably ELICOS (38%).
Many international students study more than one course in a reported year. So, while there were 925,905 enrolments counted in the year-to-date July 2025, these were generated by 791,146 international students.
There were 347,834 commencements, which is 16 per cent lower than the same period in 2024. Of these, the number of commencements by students who were new to Australia in 2025 has declined by 21 per cent.
Fifty-seven per cent of international students were from the following five student source countries: China (23% of international students), India (17%), Nepal (8%), Vietnam (4%) and the Philippines (4%).
The most popular Field of Education in Higher Education was Management and Commerce followed by Information Technology, while in VET it was Management and Commerce followed by Food, Hospitality and Personal Services.
In YTD July 2025, the most popular Level of Study in Higher Education was Masters degree by coursework (48% of total) followed by Bachelors degree (37%), while in VET it was Diploma (36%) followed by Certificate IV (21%).

Considerations for interpreting this data

International student data is published in monthly year-to-date (YTD) and annual calendar year formats based on monthly snapshots of Provider Registration and International Student Management System (PRISMS). Snapshots are used to avoid slight variations in data across different extract dates as PRISMS is a live system and is constantly updated.
Monthly YTD data for the current reporting year is available in the monthly summary (PDF) and the monthly YTD data tables.
Student numbers is a count of individuals that have studied within the reference period on a student visa.
Enrolment numbers is a count of a student's enrolment within the reference period. If a student does multiple courses during the reference period, the enrolments will each be counted.
Further information is available in the explanatory notes for data relating to international students studying in Australia.