Appendix 1: Detailed explanation of data sources and adjustments

Number of international students

One of the main purposes of this study was to determine the overall economic impacts of total spending by international students. This required an understanding of the number of international students in each province and territory, and across different levels of study: public or private, in the K–12 system, at the college level, as well as undergraduate and graduate students in the university system. It was also necessary to determine the number of international students studying in language training programs.

We did not find one complete set of data that fits our definition of international students or that reports data on all students. In its Postsecondary Information System (PSIS), Statistics Canada collects data on international student enrolment at the college and university levels, including a breakdown of undergraduate and graduate levels by field of study or program level. However, the colleges and universities covered in the Statistics Canada survey are essentially all in the public domain, and therefore the data do not yield information on international students in the private post-secondary system.

In terms of the number of international students in the K–12 system, no data are readily available from Statistics Canada for each province and territory, or from each provincial or territorial ministry of education.

When no consistent data were available for international students, the alternative was to use data on foreign students from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). As international students need to obtain a study permit before arriving in Canada to pursue education and training for a period longer than six months, IRCC data indicate how many study permit holders were in each province and territory at a given time.

IRCC defines international students as follows:

Temporary residents who are in Canada on a study permit in the observed calendar year. International students have been issued a document that allows them to study in Canada and does not imply that they may or may not also be a permit holder of another type at the same time. Under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, a study permit is not needed for any program of study that is six months or less.
A study permit is a permit authorizing foreign nationals to enter and study in Canada on a temporary basis. The study permit identifies the level of study and the length of time the individual may study in Canada. Students do not need a study permit for courses shorter than six months.

There are three broad levels of study for international students:

Secondary or less: secondary school and elementary school
Post-secondary: college and university programs
Other studies

The IRCC data therefore allow the number of study permit holders to be used as a proxy for the number of international students at a given time in a year, and allow distinctions to be made between broad levels of study.

One limitation of using the IRCC data set to represent the number of international students is that the actual number of permit holders registered at a Canadian institution may be smaller than the number of permits issued due to the fact that some permit holders may not be able to, or have chosen not to, enrol in an education program (after they are in Canada) ^{Footnote 1}.

Another limitation is that the term “foreign student” is defined by citizenship and includes permit holders who are the children or spouses of attending students. These children are not considered fee-paying international students for the purposes of this analysis ^{Footnote 2}.

From the IRCC data set, one of the adjustments we have made includes removing a portion of student permit holders in the “secondary or less” category, who are assumed to be children to parents who are enrolled in a post-secondary education program. The adjustment is based on industry information, as reported in the 2015 ICG report for CAPS-I.

These students have been further allocated to studying in public or independent K-12 school systems based on industry intelligence.

The allocation of student permit holders in the post-secondary system to finer categories of trade, college, under-graduate, master’s, PhD and other type of programs is based on IRCC information and data in Statistics Canada’s data series (Table 37-10-0018-01 Postsecondary enrolments, by registration status, institution type, status of student in Canada and gender).

Further allocation of registration status in full-time and part-time study for each type of students has been based on Statistics Canada’s data (same Table 37-10-0018-01).

Finally, another important source of international students that is not covered in the IRCC data is the number of students who study in Canada for periods of less than six months, as they do not require a study permit to enter the country. We approached organizations whose members provide short-term vocational training to the public. It should be noted, however, that only Languages Canada collects comprehensive data that is useful for our purposes.

Languages Canada is Canada’s premier language organization representing its two official languages, English and French. Membership is limited to schools that meet the association’s rigorous standards and are committed to upholding them. Currently, there are over 210 member programs across the country, including at universities, colleges and private institutions. The association is not-for-profit, and sector driven. Quality assurance is a critical element of Languages Canada, and all member schools are required to be accredited under one internationally recognized and comprehensive scheme.

Languages Canada administers an annual survey with its member schools to collect data on such topics as the source of students, immigration status, the length of study, the students’ average weekly spending and other variables. On Languages Canada’s advice, we sought data related to international students studying in its private membership schools only, as the number of those studying in its public membership schools would have been represented in IRCC’s dataset^{Footnote 3}.

We made further adjustments to calculate the average number of student weeks for students studying for up to six months in each province and territory.

Student expenditures

Tuition and fees

For tuition and other fees at the K-12 level, we relied on information published in the Canadian Association of Public Schools – International (CAPS-I) website and Canadian Accredited Independent Schools (CAIS) website. Note that these are based on tuition and fees in a school year (10 months). Tuition and fees in private schools can be substantially higher. In this regard, we also used information available from the CAIS webpages to calculate the average annual tuition and fees for international students in private schools.

Detailed information on tuition and fees for full-time university-level international students in each province is available in Statistics Canada’s annual Tuition and Living Accommodation Costs (TLAC) survey. Note that the TLAC does not provide any data for the territories.

When deriving student tuition and fees for the other levels of study other than “secondary or less” (i.e., post-secondary, which is further divided into trade/college and university; and other), we made the following assumptions:

University – We applied separate undergraduate and graduate tuition values from the TLAC to full-time undergraduate students and students in master’s/PhD programs^{Footnote 4}. Part-time students were assumed to take a 50% course load for the purposes of calculation. In addition to tuition, we have included “additional fees,” which represent the compulsory fees the universities impose on both domestic and international students, such as facility fees, society fees, health and dental fees (for international students only), student pass fees in some cases, and others. We also made an allowance of $1,200 per academic year for books/tools/materials.

Tuition and fees are for an academic year (i.e., eight months) in the TLAC data, and we have assumed that 100% of students study eight months of the year.

College – For full-time tuition, we applied a factor of 75% to the average university undergraduate tuition in each province. The 75% is an approximation based on web research conducted for select college programs in each province to see how they compare to the full-time tuition for an undergraduate program. The exception to this 75% ratio is with tuition of college students in Ontario – for this province, weighted average tuition for full-time undergraduate was $47,280 for the 2024 calendar year. We have searched College Ontario’s website to look for information pertaining to tuition and fees for international students, and found that most fees were lower than $20,000 in an academic year. Consequently, for Ontario, the ratio applied was 45%.

For part-time students, we assumed a 50% course load.

We also assumed that international students in “college” level of study pay on average the same percentage (75%) of “additional fees” as university-level international students. We also made the same allowance for books/equipment requirement ($1,200) in a year.

For international college students in the territories, tuition and fees information was derived from colleges’ websites.

Other – since we did not have any detailed information on the nature of their study, we assumed the following: that these students may pay tuition and fees equivalent to the average paid by K-12 and college students. Students in this category were also assumed to incur living expenses equivalent to those in part-time college studies.

For short-term international students, estimates of tuition and fees on a weekly basis were derived from information in Languages Canada’s 2024 annual report.

Living expenses

Secondary or less – we relied on information published in the Canadian Association of Public Schools – International (CAPS-I) website and Canadian Accredited Independent Schools (CAIS) website. A student in the public school system pays an average homestay cost of $1,150 per month (in 2024) for a 10-month period. Essentially, we assumed that students return to their home countries for summer vacation. For those in the private, independent school system, we assumed that three quarters of these students pay an average homestay cost of $1,150 per month, and one quarter of these students board with the school they attend.

University – for full-time students, we use Statistics Canada’s annual Tuition and Living Accommodation Costs (TLAC) survey data (to calculate the average costs of on-campus room and meal expenses for an eight-month period for students in the undergraduate, master’s and PhD programs) ^{Footnote 5}. Then, values were scaled up to full-year (12 months) values. That is, we assumed that international students in the university category stay in the country for 12 months, even though they may only take courses for two semesters.

For part-time students, we assumed a monthly homestay cost of $1500 in 2022 for 12 months in a year.

We also made allowances for transportation costs for students staying in different provinces and territories. We applied data from Statistics Canada’s Survey of Household Spending (SHS), which details household spending on public transportation, by province and territory, in 2023^{Footnote 6}. The values we used refer to the average expenditure per household on public transportation (households that did or did not use public transit). Values in 2024 dollars were adjusted for inflation between 2023 and 2024.

For students in non-university study (college as well as those in the “other” category), we assumed that they spend the equivalent of what university students have to pay during an academic year (average room, meal and transportation costs).

The average costs for meals and accommodation at colleges in the territories were derived in the same way as they were in the provinces. Estimates of transportation costs were calculated as the average for provincial transportation costs.

In addition to basic living costs, as presented above, we made an allowance of $3,750 per student per year ($1,000 for K-12 students) for discretionary expenses (such as eating out, recreational activities and entertaining), in 2024.

For each province and territory, for each level of study, the formula to calculate gross expenditures was as follows:

Estimated number of students in that level of study multiplied by the sum of (average tuition and additional fees, books, average room and meal costs, average transportation costs, average discretionary spending) per year = gross expenditures in one year for international students in the level of study

Scholarships and awards

In this study, in order to calculate the net economic benefits that international students brought to the host country, we took into account any financial assistance that international students received from Canadian federal or provincial governments, and from institutions.

We conducted extensive web research on the financial statements of universities and colleges across all provinces in order to find such information, but to little avail. We estimated that the support universities and colleges provide to international students is probably no more than 1% of the student tuition collected ^{Footnote 7}.

We were also informed that the federal government annually grants $20 million to support international students ^{Footnote 8}. As such, we used a factor equivalent to 1% of international student tuition and fees, plus $20 million to represent the deduction. This reduction factor of 1% was applied to students in the trade/college, undergraduate, master’s and PhD programs only.

Additional tourism benefits from visiting friends and family members

One additional benefit of international education is increased tourism activities, due to family and friends visiting the host country while students remain in the country.

Unfortunately, this area is still a challenge with respect to data availability. We do not have a good handle on the number of family and friends who visit international students during their stay in Canada. For the purposes of this estimation, we applied a similar methodology to the one used in an Australian study to derive the estimated number of international students’ family and friends who participate in tourism activities.

The methodology in the Australian Council for Private Education and Training’s (ACPET’s) 2013 study was based on research conducted by Tourism Research Australia. The study shows that for every 10 formal visiting students (defined as those whose main purpose for visiting Australia is education), an additional five family members or friends visit the country. For every 10 informal visiting students (defined as those whose main purpose for visiting Australia was not education but still studied a course while on their trip), there are an additional 2 visitors.

In our current study, we assumed that for every 10 long-term international students, five family members and/or friends visited Canada during the year, and that for every 10 short term international students, two family members and/or friends visited Canada during the year.

The average expenditure of these visiting family or friends has been derived from Destination Canada’s reports on U.S. and international arrivals and expenditure by type^{Footnote 9}^{Footnote 10}.

Footnotes

Footnote 1

In this regard, we note a recently released study by Statistics Canada (Choi & Hou 2023) found that “about one-quarter of postsecondary study permit holders in 2019 had not enrolled in publicly funded postsecondary programs, with over half of them likely engaging in other study or work activities”. That means, about three-quarters of postsecondary study permit holders in 2019 were in fact enrolled in publicly funded postsecondary programs, and another 12.5% of the study permit holders in 2019 could have enrolled in a private postsecondary institution.

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Footnote 2

It should be noted that there are still some “non-fee-paying” students who have not fully been adjusted for due to lack of data. For example, no adjustments have been made for cases in which Quebec has made an agreement with respect to international students with French citizenship (in Quebec, an international student can even pay domestic fees if he or she is studying French language, literature, culture, etc. at the degree level), or for exchange students in all provinces (they do not pay international fees, as they pay tuition to their own institutions back home).

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Footnote 3

Note that IRCC collects data on short-term students from some countries (SX-1 Visa holders). However, these numbers are small and not captured in this study.

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Footnote 4

Detailed data on tuition for full-time undergraduate and graduate students can be found in tables 37 and 38, in appendix 4. It should be noted that setting tuition and fees in public post-secondary institutions is generally a provincial/territorial responsibility. As such, the level of tuition shown in these data tables does not necessarily reflect the true cost of educational programs in these provinces and territories.

It should also be noted that, in the release of TLAC data, since 2010–2011, regular and executive MBA (master of business administration) programs have been excluded from the national and provincial weighted averages due to their high costs and their effect on the overall tuition fee average. Dental, medical and veterinary residency programs offered in teaching hospitals and similar locations that may lead to advanced professional certification have also been excluded.

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Footnote 5

Statistics Canada, TLAC, Table 7. Living Accommodation Costs at Residences.

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Footnote 6

Statistics Canada, Table 11-10-0223-01 Household spending by household income quintile, Canada, regions and provinces.

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Footnote 7

We reviewed the consolidated financial statements of a number of universities and colleges across the provinces. While all financial statements report student tuition and fees received on the revenue side, and amounts paid for scholarships, awards and bursaries on the expense side, very few financial statements actually include information pertaining to international students.

Given that there are no published data pertaining to the amount of scholarships, awards, and bursaries provided to international students, we derive the 1% estimate based on information in Statistics Canada Table 37-10-0027-01 and 37-10-0029-01 (Expenditures of universities, colleges by type of expenditures and funds (in current Canadian dollars) (x 1,000)). For universities, expenditure that is distributed to “scholarship, bursaries and prizes” for all students accounts for 7% of the total expenditure, while the percentage in colleges is 1%. We note that as postsecondary institutions charge international student the full cost of education, that amount of tuition and fees paid by international students would be equivalent to the total expenditure to fund that student. Given it is not clear what percentage of universities and colleges actually provide scholarships, bursaries and awards to international students, we have opted to use the lower end of the ratio to represent this amount.

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Footnote 8

The most recent information was from a Global Affairs Canada source when the study was updated in 2025. Global Affairs Canada further clarifies that such support mostly goes to support international students in short-term programs.

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Footnote 9

Destination Canada, Total International Arrivals to Canada.

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Footnote 10

Destination Canada, Tourism Spend in Canada. Data derived from this source was for 2019. For the purposes of this report, we have increased the expenditure by 10%.

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