Housing international students: Housing suitability across municipalities

An increase in the number of international students and a greater need for affordable housing have prompted questions about their housing experiences. This article examines the prevalence of living in unsuitable housing for international students enumerated in the 2021 Census of Population long-form questionnaire and provides comparisons with Canadian-born students across municipalities. The results indicated that international students were more likely to live in unsuitable housing than Canadian-born students. However, there was a large variation across municipalities in the proportion of international students living in unsuitable housing. In the top 10 municipalities with the highest number of international students, the rates of living in unsuitable housing ranged from 25% to 63% for international students, about 13 to 45 percentage points higher than that for Canadian-born students aged 18 to 24. Furthermore, there were large disparities in unsuitable housing rates across international student groups from different source countries. Students from India were more likely to live in unsuitable housing compared with those from other countries. In Brampton and Surrey, the municipalities with the largest shares of Indian students, the proportions of international students in unsuitable housing were the highest. The difference in the source-country composition of international students accounted for most of the variation across municipalities in international students’ housing suitability. Canada welcomes a large number of international studentsNote each year from various countries, and the number of arrivals has increased over the past two decades (Choi, Crossman & Hou, 2021; Crossman et al., 2022). The increase in the number of international students and a greater need for affordable housing have prompted questions about their housing experiences (Pottie-Sherman et al., 2023). International students have reported difficulties finding affordable and suitable housing because of cultural differences, language barriers, lack of familiarity with the Canadian housing system and regulations, and other obstacles (El Masri & Khan, 2022). As international students may have unique housing experiences, it is important to understand how this population fares in terms of housing conditions (Pottie-Sherman et al., 2023). There may also be geographic differences in the housing conditions of international students across municipalities because of variations in regional housing markets (see Statistics Canada, 2022). Furthermore, international students from different source countries may vary in their financial resources and cultural norms regarding living arrangements. Using data from the 2021 Census of Population, this article examines the prevalence of living in unsuitable housingNote for international students enumerated in the long-form census questionnaireNote and provides comparisons with Canadian-born studentsNote across municipalities (or census subdivisions [CSDs]).Note Since the long-form census questionnaire did not collect information for people living in collective dwellings, including school residences, this article covers only international students living in private households. Data are shown separately for the top 10 CSDs with the highest number of international students and the 5 CSDs with the highest proportion of international students by their share of the total population of Canadians.Note This article further examines the variation in housing suitability of international students by their source country and whether such variation is associated with differences in international students’ housing suitability across municipalities.