Nigeria became the third-biggest sender of students abroad
Tertiary students studying in another country, by home country, 2018 vs 2023. Most 2023 figures are UNESCO estimates.
- 1. By 2100, more than 1 in 3 people will be African
- 2. Nearly half the world's under-25s will be African by 2100
- 3. DR Congo is projected to outgrow the US by 2100
- 4. Kinshasa will soon be bigger than Paris and London combined
- 5. Two-thirds of the world's mobile money moves in Africa
- 6. Volcanic heat makes nearly 45% of the power Kenya generates
- 7. Africa's solar imports more than doubled since early 2024
- 8. DR Congo mines three-quarters of the world's cobalt
- 9. Nearly two in three people in Africa are still offline
- 10. Africa formally recycles less than 1% of its e-waste
- 11. Ethiopia added over a third of Africa's new renewable power
- 12. Nigeria's cities now hold more people than Japan's
- 13. Sudan now has the world's most people displaced at home
- 14. Nigeria now has almost 25 million more people than Brazil
- 15. Six of the ten fastest-growing big cities are African
- 16. Africa now has more hungry people than Asia
- 17. Six in ten child deaths now happen in sub-Saharan Africa
- 18. Rwanda spread electricity faster than any country since 2014
- 19. Nigeria now eats more rice than Japan
- 20. More sub-Saharan Africans now have mobile money than bank accounts
- 21. Sub-Saharan Africa's cities now hold more people than Latin America's
- 22. DR Congo tripled its copper mining in ten years
- 23. Nitrogen dioxide over Khartoum fell 39% after war began
- 24. Countries mostly without electricity fell from 33 to 15
- 25. Seven in ten West African mobile money accounts sit idle
- 26. Nigeria became the third-biggest sender of students abroad
- 27. Guinea overtook Australia as the world's biggest bauxite miner
- 28. DR Congo passed Chile in refined copper
- 29. Burkina Faso now sends half its exports to the UAE
Nigerians studying at universities abroad in 2023 (UNESCO estimate), nearly double the 76,337 of 2018.
Nigeria's world rank among senders, passing nine countries including Germany, Viet Nam and the US. Only China and India send more.
Rise in Nigerians studying abroad in 2023 alone (+33,788). That year Nigeria sent more students abroad than Germany or Viet Nam.
the numbers & method
| 2018 (k) | 2023 (k) | |
|---|---|---|
| China | 1,000.3 | 1,076.0 |
| India | 382.7 | 833.8 |
| Nigeria | 76.3 | 146.3 |
| Germany | 122.5 | 128.3 |
| Viet Nam | 108.4 | 128.2 |
| Uzbekistan | 42.3 | 120.6 |
| United States | 86.0 | 118.2 |
| France | 99.7 | 115.0 |
| Pakistan | 56.5 | 114.8 |
| Nepal | 82.2 | 108.3 |
Claim types Fact · Estimate
UIS indicator OE.5T8.40510 'Total outbound internationally mobile tertiary students studying abroad, all countries, both sexes (number)', read from the UIS public data API (api.uis.unesco.org/api/public/data/indicators?indicator=OE.5T8.40510). Outbound counts are compiled from host countries' reports of incoming students. Values for 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023 carry the UIS_EST qualifier (UIS estimates); 2018 and 2020 values, and China's 2023 value, are not flagged. Nigeria: 2018 76,337; 2019 69,369; 2020 74,413; 2021 85,332; 2022 112,498 (8th); 2023 146,286 (3rd). World ranks are progrss calculations over every country in the UIS table (210 countries): Nigeria 12th in 2018, 3rd in 2023. The chart shows the ten biggest senders of 2023 in thousands; positions on the chart are among these ten, so Nigeria appears 8th for 2018 (11th was Saudi Arabia, 76,757; Kazakhstan, Republic of Korea, Ukraine and Saudi Arabia were above Nigeria in 2018 and are below the top ten in 2023). Uzbekistan was 3rd in 2022 (141,000) before falling to 120,563. Growth rates are progrss calculations. Licence: UIS data, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. UIS data currently ends in 2023.
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