View this email in your browser

Who’s coming to America for school?

Hundreds of thousands of students immigrate to the United States each year to advance their education. In another sign of life returning to some post-pandemic normalcy, the number of international students in the US is close to the 2019 level. Here’s a look at student immigrants over time and where they come from.

• Last year, 701,945 students came from other countries to study in the US. That’s up from the lows in the 200,000–400,000 range in the wake of the pandemic and comparable to 2019, when 728,739 students arrived. The peak over the last decade was 989,795 in 2015.

  
  

• More than half of the students studying here are from Asia, totaling 367,654 people in 2022. Of all students who immigrated to the US last year, 18% were from India, 10% were from China, and 25% were from other Asian countries.  

• Europe was the second most common region, representing about 23% of immigrant students. German students were the largest European cohort in 2022, with 23,056 students.

• The F-1 academic student visa was the most common type of student visa issued in 2022, representing 59% of the students.

Learn about the four other types of visas students use to come to the US.

What do doctors earn in the US?

The compensation of physicians and surgeons in the United States reflects a complex landscape shaped by factors like specialty, geographic location, and demand. Which specialties earn the most?

• As of May 2022, approximately 816,900 Americans worked as physicians or surgeons.

• In 2022, the median annual wage for physicians and surgeons was $229,300, almost five times the nation’s general median wage of $46,310. Among all specialties, cardiologists had the highest average annual wage ($421,330), followed by non-pediatric orthopedic surgeons ($371,400).

  
  

• About one-third of non-physician healthcare practitioners are registered nurses, numbering 3,072,700, with a median annual salary of $81,220.

  
  

• Salaries for physicians and surgeons can vary greatly by state, depending on demand and cost-of-living factors. Nebraska has the highest average annual wage for anesthesiologists ($422,040) but the lowest for cardiologists ($248,370) and general pediatricians ($116,930).

  
  

• The Bureau of Labor estimates that 24,200 new physician and surgeon jobs will open each year over the next decade as an aging population and increasing rates of chronic illnesses create demand for doctors.

See more about the highest-paid medical professions. Does your state top any lists?

Data behind the news

The US Supreme Court formally adopted a code of ethics on November 13, albeit without a way to enforce it. Get a history of Supreme Court justices, including their age at confirmation and the presidents who appointed them.

The Texas House of Representatives recently passed a bill that creates new state crimes for migrants who enter or re-enter the state illegally. See the data on border recidivism.

The Producer Price Index showed some signs that inflation was cooling in October. Here’s a look at which regions have had the highest inflation rates this year.

Are you keeping up with government data? Take the weekly fact quiz to find out.

One last fact

Households that do not have hot and cold running water and/or an indoor bathtub or shower are said to be in plumbing poverty. In 2021, approximately 347,943 US households didn’t have a bath or a shower, 419,971 didn’t have hot or cold running water, and 246,884 had neither.