The Black Percentage of All U.S. Students Who Studied Abroad Took a Big Hit From the Pandemic

Filed in Research & Studies on November 22, 2021

According to the Institute of International Education’s latest annual Open Doors report, which provides detailed information on foreign students who come to U.S. colleges and universities and U.S. students who study abroad, the percentage of African Americans in the study abroad pool dipped significantly during the 2019-20 academic year.

The total number of U.S. students studying abroad decreased by more than 53 percent in the 2019-2020 academic years due to the global pandemic and restrictions on travel. In the 2018-19 academic year, 347,099 U.S. students studied abroad. In the 2019-20 academic, the number was only 162,333.

Of the 162.333 American students who studied abroad in the 2019-2020 academic year, 5.5 percent were Black. African Americans had been making steady progress in increasing their share of the study abroad pool. In 2000, just 3.5 percent of all U.S. students studying abroad were African Americans. The Black percentage of all U.S. students studying abroad began to move forward. By the 2018-19 academic years. Blacks made up 6.4 percent of all U.S. students who studied abroad.

This is just another example of how the African American community experienced a disparate impact from the COVID-19 pandemic.