Families from across the US participated in our host family survey to tell us about their hosting experience, and here are the results!
Percentage of Students by Region
Host families who took our survey told us where their student originated from. Above is a chart that illustrates which regions were sending over the majority of students. 51% of students were from Asia with Europe coming in second sending over 38% of the students.
“My student and I were almost a perfect match. He didn’t just come here to study and we have had some great experiences. We went to New York City for spring break. We have been to about 20 college basketball games and 8 NBA games. We are planning a road trip after school ends before he returns to Brazil. I dread having to give him back to his parents. He has become family.”
Percentage of Students by Country
We dug deeper to see which Country these students come from and this is what we found:
China sends over the highest percentage of students. This is due to the fact that many Chinese students come over for 1-4 years of high school education in hopes to then move on to going to an American University. Surprisingly, the third highest percentage of students were German students sending over 11%.
“I love showing them all our cultures, our holidays, and our foods as well as us learning theirs. We take our students camping with us and have taken them on vacation to other states. We are a very diverse family. We enjoy having children in our home.”
Would you host again?
As part of the survey, we asked former host families if they would host an international student again. This piece of data showed no surprises! With 87% of former host families who say they would host again,
“We have been hosting for 21 years and we love it . We have learned about many cultures and have had so much fun. We have become best friends with many students families and we visit them and they come back here for visits. We would recommend hosting.”
Summary
In summary, many families find the hosting experience to be rewarding and one that exceeded their expectations. The number of students applying to exchange programs is increasing each year. Currently, the highest sending region is Asia, however Europe is not far behind and its number are growing with new opportunities arising.