Education export income - Financial Year

This page contains information on the education export income, for the financial year 2022-23

On this page:

International education was worth $36.4 billion to the Australian economy.

There was $21.8 billion paid as Goods and Services and $14.6 billion paid as Tuition fees.

Top five exports 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23
Coal 54620 39195 113844 127423
Iron Ore 102877 152974 132487 124102
Natural Gas 47524 30476 70571 92237
Education-related 37338 27554 20776 36423
Gold 24394 26104 23203 24416
State 2022-23 2021-22 2020-21 2019-20
NSW 13124 7431 10033 13312
VIC 11489 6441 8850 12709
QLD 5257 3063 3984 5335
SA 2477 1556 1702 2117
WA 2372 1171 1634 2082
ACT 1100 593 684 945
TAS 421 381 500 668
NT 183 142 167 170

Education export income by sector (A$ million)

Note: New Zealand students do not study on a student visa and have no sector data.  
  2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23
Higher Education $25,269 $17,862 $13,502 $24,116
Vocational Education and Training $8,041 $7,878 $6,098 $8,511
Schools $1,317 $986 $648 $851
English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS) $1,430 $372 $229 $1,989
Non-award  $834 $140 $104 $651
New Zealand $263 $192 $129 $158
Ausaid/Defence $184 $124 $65 $149
Total $37,338 $27,554 $20,776 $36,425
Country 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23
China 10434 6109 4230 8727
India 6542 5309 3729 5930
Nepal 2954 2522 2002 3428
Vietnam 1396 1170 958 1481
Colombia 849 756 580 1130
Philippines 866 784 556 1113
Indonesia 982 753 632 1086
Thailand 706 525 450 1080
Pakistan 825 699 549 983
Malaysia 1250 904 683 965
Rest of the world 10534 8023 6407 10500

Considerations for interpreting this data

  • The figures in the tables above represent the data on international education exports released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in its International Trade in Services series.
  • The total export income generated by all international education activity includes spending by onshore students as well as earnings from other educational services and royalties. The ABS uses the term ‘education-related personal travel’ for this term.
  • Includes international students studying onshore on student visas only.
  • Export income does not include income generated by the operations of offshore campuses of Australian institutions.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics data