Open Doors Report 2025: Europe still the most popular destination for US students studying abroad – Germany ranks 7th among destination countries
The results in detail
International students in the United States
Germany ranks 21st among the countries of origin of international students in the US worldwide and 3rd among European countries of origin (1st United Kingdom, 2nd Spain), followed by France. With 9,123 international students from Germany in the 2024/2025 academic year, there has been a slight decline of -1.2% compared to the previous academic year (9,230). New York University New York, Northeastern University – Boston and Columbia University in New York are the top 3 destination universities for international students (2024/2025).
In the 2023-2024 academic year, 39.4% of stays abroad were summer study programmes, 22.8% were short-term programmes of eight weeks or less. Stays of one or two quarters or one semester accounted for 35.5%, while stays of one academic or calendar year accounted for only 2.4% with 6,635 and 7,031 students, respectively.
Among international students in the United States in 2024/25, mathematics and computer science (25.9%; +8.7%) and engineering (18.4%; +3.3%) were clearly in the lead, followed by business and management (13.6%; ±0%) and physics and life sciences. Art and design subjects declined (4.2%; –8.5%).
Internationally mobile students from the USA
The total number of students from the USA studying abroad rose to 298,180 (+6.2%) in 2023/24. Europe remains the most popular destination region with 64.1% (Latin America & Caribbean: 10.5%, Asia: 10.2%, Oceania: 3.3%, Sub-Saharan Africa: 3%, Middle East and North Africa: 1.6%, North America: 0.6%, multiple: 6.5%), led by Italy (7.7% compared to 2022-2023), Spain (+12.8%) and the United Kingdom (+4.1%). Germany ranked seventh among the top destinations with 9,682 students and also recorded a slight increase of 3.8%. While some European countries such as France (-2.1%) and the Netherlands (-3.5%) recorded declines, Greece (+12.9%) and Portugal (+22.3%) showed significant increases.
Among US students studying abroad, business and management continued to dominate in 2024/25 compared to 2023-2024 (21.7%; +9.7%), followed by social sciences (17.8%; +6.6%) and physics and life sciences (8.0%; +3.5%), while engineering accounted for only 5.7% but recorded the strongest growth at 12.3%.
The proportion of indigenous students (American Indian or Alaska Native) rose from 0.3% to 0.4%, those of Asian or Pacific origin from 9.6% to 10.4%, the proportion of black or African American students rose from 5.9% to 6.1% and that of multi-ethnic students from 5.5% to 5.7%, while the proportion of Hispanic students remained stable at 12.2% and the proportion of white students fell slightly from 66.4% to 65.2%.
