China
East Asia & Pacific · Upper middle income
Two forces shape how many students a country sends abroad: the supply of domestic education (quality and capacity at home) and the demand drivers (who wants to leave, and who can afford to). The headline index for each axis is the mean percentile — versus every country that year — of a fixed core basket; other indicators are shown as context.
Supply — domestic education
Index = Education Index + tertiary enrolment. Weak supply itself drives students abroad.
- Tertiary Enrolment Ratio202271.6%6969th pctile
Tertiary gross enrolment ratio — domestic capacity.
- Education Index20220.6934848th pctile
UNDP education sub-index (schooling years).
- PISA — Mathematicscontext2018591100100th pctile
OECD PISA mean score — mathematics. · region avg 487
- PISA — Readingcontext2018555100100th pctile
OECD PISA mean score — reading. · region avg 472
- PISA — Sciencecontext2018590100100th pctile
OECD PISA mean score — science. · region avg 489
Demand — drivers to study abroad
Index = GDP per capita + outbound mobility + population (market scale).
- Population (market scale)20231.41B100100th pctile
Total population — scale of the student market.
- GDP per Capita (PPP)2023$25,1795858th pctile
GDP per capita, PPP — ability to pay.
- Outbound Mobility Ratio20231.8%1616th pctile
Tertiary students studying abroad, as a share of enrolment.
The headline index uses the core basket only, so it stays comparable across countries and matches the trend chart and world map below. PISA (≈80 countries, triennial) is shown as context, not in the index.
Supply & demand over time
2000–2023Each axis indexed 0–100 by its position relative to the world that year, so a rising line means China is climbing the global ranks. A widening gap between demand (above) and supply (below) signals growing pressure to study abroad.
Index basket (held constant for comparability): supply = Education Index + tertiary enrolment ratio; demand = GDP per capita (PPP) + outbound mobility ratio + population.
Coverage
8/8 indicators present. Full coverage across all eight indicators.
China students in Australia
The supply/demand model above is global. Here is the realised outcome in one destination — actual enrolments of China students in Australia, the same series shown in International Education, filtered to this country.
International Student Volume
Enrolments by year — year-to-date path, last six years
Loading enrolment trend…
Current year in vermillion; prior years in grey. Source: Australian Department of Education.
By Sector
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Current year Previous year · % = year-on-year change
By State & Territory
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Current year Previous year · % = year-on-year change