A recent study has shown that international students earn more than Canadian-born graduates in top Canadian universities.
To arrive at this conclusion, economists at the University of Waterloo examined student records from the university, immigration data from IRCC, i.e., Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, and T1 income tax returns from the Canada Revenue Agency.
They found that the earnings of Waterloo’s international student graduates are more than those of not only Canadian-born graduates from the same university but also Canadian-born university graduates nationally.
Particularly, international students who graduated between 2017 and 19 earned 37% more: an average of $57,500 per year, compared to their Canadian-born counterparts, who earned an average of $42,000 per year.
The difference is the median earning of these two groups is even larger: $56,400 versus $38,700, a 46% difference.
In addition, over the first 13 years of their careers, international graduates’ salaries outpaced those of Canadian-born graduates.
Specifically, the average earnings after 13 years are closer to $120,000 for foreign-born PR graduates and between $100,000 and $120,000 for international students compared to $100,000 for Canadian-born graduates.
The study’s authors suggested that the higher earnings could be attributed to the increasing economic returns of degrees in technology and engineering, fields where UWaterloo’s international students are predominantly concentrated.
The University of Waterloo focuses on technology as well as engineering, attracting a diverse student body from across the world interested in these fields. It is also an extensive co-op program, which enables its students to get practical experience. It ranked #115 in the QS World Rankings 2025, placing it among the top five universities to make the list in Canada.
The findings seem to be in line with previous research that suggests immigrants have better education and economic outcomes. A study by Statistics Canada earlier this year revealed that newcomers who initially settled in Canada as children are not likely to pursue higher education.
Moreover, after the age of 25, their median wages also equaled or surpassed the median wage of Canadian tax filers in the same age bracket.
The study by University of Waterloo economists also found that roughly 70% of international students who attend the University of Waterloo become permanent residents, more than double the national average.
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