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.
