Appendix 3: Reconciliation of the study estimates with valuation by Statistics Canada

In this appendix, we compare our estimates of the value of international student spending in a given year with Statistics Canada’s valuation. Statistics Canada reported that Canada’s receipt of foreign exchange dollars from international students was valued at $32.07 billion in 2023 ^{Footnote 1} . In our study, we estimated that total annual spending by international students and their visiting families and friends was valued at almost $47.5 billion in 2024. In this appendix, we show how our estimates can be reconciled with Statistics Canada’s valuation.

In Statistics Canada’s valuation, “international transactions in services are a major component of the Current account of the Balance of payments. Services are grouped under four major categories: travel, transportation, commercial services and government services.” Spending by international students includes education-related travel, which is defined as follows ^{Footnote 2 Footnote 3} .

In theory, education-related travel should include all expenditures in another country by students. But for practical reasons, Canadian statistics include only outlays of post-secondary students; that is, only outlays on full-time university and college programs, which generally extend over more than one year, are included. Recorded outlays include all expenditures by post-secondary students studying abroad – that is, expenditures for tuition fees and course materials, together with accommodation and general living expenses. Except as incidentally covered in other personal travel, spending for primary and secondary schooling remains to be estimated in Canadian statistics. Certain further expenditures on institutional education (such as for personal interest courses) also remain in other personal travel because of data limitations.

Therefore, it is important to note that the Statistics Canada valuation we compared with is limited to the cost of education and living expenses for full-time post-secondary international students. In our report, our valuation included the expenditures of students who were in K–12 schools and in other programs, including students in programs shorter than six months. Our valuation also included expenditures incurred by visiting family and friends.

The most recent Statistics Canada data on the number of post-secondary international students was for the 2022/2023 academic year. The valuation of the export of education-related personal travel services would have been based on the number of international students in post-secondary systems, about 421,008 ^{Footnote 4} . In all, Statistics Canada’s assessed value of the students’ expenditure on tuition, food, accommodation and transportation for an academic year of eight months was $22.327 billion. Cost of education plus cost of living expenses would have been estimated to be approximately $53,000 per student.

In RKA’s calculation, to estimate the number of post-secondary students in Canada in 2022 who were in college programs and in universities, we relied on values from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s estimate of study permit holders as of December 31 of that year. Of the total 807,260 study permit holders, 651,235 were study permit holders pursuing post-secondary training in Canada.

We derived per-student expenditures (net of Canadian scholarships and bursaries) as follows:

• Those in college programs: $42,807 per year in 2022, assuming eight months of study and twelve months of living expenses.
• Those in university programs: $53,805 per year in 2022, assuming eight months of study and twelve months of living expenses.

Therefore, total expenditures for post-secondary students in 2022 was valued at $32.3 billion in the RKA study. It can be seen that, on a per student level of expenditure, the value in the RKA study is not quite different from Statistics Canada’s valuation, and hence the difference in valuation can be mainly attributed to the number of international students involved. Evidently, other than the difference in timing of when Statistics Canada’s enrolment data was collected and the IRCC data (December 31^st) attributing to different numbers of students, our study does take into account the number of postsecondary students studying in non-public education and training institutions.

At the time of this report, we cannot compare our estimates of the value of total international students’ annual expenditure in 2024 with a similar valuation by Statistics Canada, as the data are not yet available. As shown above, if the number of post-secondary international students in the RKA study and in Statistics Canada’s valuation had been similar, the resulting valuation of total expenditures would not differ substantially.

In our study, in addition to post-secondary students in trades, college programs and universities, we included students in the K–12 system, with expenditures on tuition and homestay for ten months, as well as other students whose level of study was not clear but who were included in IRCC’s data. Total expenditures for these long-term students—defined as students required by IRCC to hold a valid study permit to study in Canada for longer than six months in a calendar year—were valued at $5.5 billion in 2024.

The final segment of the international student population consists of short-term students, who do not require a study permit to pursue training generally shorter than six months. These students include those pursuing language training or other short-term vocational training. For practical reasons, data were obtained only from Languages Canada, and expenditures were valued based on this source. For these 70,940 students, the total number of student weeks was estimated to be 865,586, and total expenditures were estimated at $964.3 million.

In addition to student expenditures related to tuition, fees and living expenses, we estimated spending by visiting family members and friends. The value of spending attributed to visiting family members and friends was estimated to be $341.6 million.

Combining the spending of long-term and short-term students, as well as their visiting family members and friends, yields a total expenditure value of $47.5 billion in our estimate.