Go East, Young Man.

There are 1.3 billion people in China, 0.3 billion in America. Somehow this led me to assume there are more students of higher education in China than America. Not so. America has more. (At least they did as of 2002.) This is not likely to remain. Enrollment levels have been rising rapidly in China, slowly in America. (Levels actually fell slightly in the late 90s). China will overtake America in number of students at institutions of higher learning, if they haven’t already.

Enrollment levels in China since 1980

Enrollment levels in American since 1980

Source: Nationmaster