Indian Students Contribute $7.6 Billion to US Economy in 2019-20

International students from across countries contributed $ 44 billion to the US economy in 2019.

(Photo: The Quint)

Despite a 4.4 percent drop in their number across colleges and universities in the United States, Indian students contributed to a whopping $7.6 billion to the US economy in the academic year 2019-20, reveals Open Doors 2020, a report funded by US government.

Further, international students from across countries contributed $44 billion to the US economy in 2019.

The development comes after the number of Indian students in the US have dropped from 2,02,014 in the academic year spanning 2018-19 to 1,93,124 in 2019-20.

This means that in 2019-20, around 8,890 lesser students took up courses in US varsities, at a time when the Trump administration’s multiple visa restrictions and its anti-immigrant policies had reached their peak.

The report also comes at a time when the number of new international students at US universities dropped by 42 percent in fall 2020 – a slump widely attributed to the coronavirus pandemic.

While Indian students were the second-largest in US at 1,93, 124, China accounted for the lion’s share, sending about 3,72,000 students to the US in 2019-20.