ITALY IS NUMBER ONE STUDY ABROAD LOCATION FOR 2004, SAYS STUDYABROAD.COM
CHESTER, PA, January 17, 2005 -
Italy is the most popular country to study abroad in, according to a recent survey conducted by StudyAbroad.com, the Internet's leading source of information on educational opportunities for students to study in other countries.
Just over 76,000 potential study abroad students searched information relating to Italy in 2004. England had the second highest interest with 68,268 visitors and France was third with 65,728. Japan and Spain rounded out the top five highest searched countries with 62,617 and 59,562 visitors respectively.
"These numbers are fairly consistent with last year," says John Duncan, the manager of StudyAbroad.com. "According to the Institute of International Education (IIE), England was the leading destination of U.S. study abroad students and Italy was second, a direct reversal of this year." In addition, Spain was third, France fourth, and Australia fifth on that list. This year, Australia had 32,264 potential students search for information on StudyAbroad.com, ranking it the 10th most popular.
"It may seem like an odd comparison, but the popularity of countries is like the stock market," Duncan says. "It fluctuates all the time. One country's popularity goes up and another goes down. Next year it could change again." Some countries that found themselves on the top 20 most visited countries may seem surprising. Brazil had 25,580 visitors, Cuba had 21,116, Malaysia had 17,718, and Ghana had 17,085. That ranks Brazil 13th, Cuba 15th, Malaysia 17th, and Ghana the 19th most visited countries on StudyAbroad.com.
StudyAbroad.com is the Internet's leading source of information on educational opportunities for students to study in other countries. It is a comprehensive directory of study abroad and intensive language programs organized by subject and destination. StudyAbroad.com also offers Destination Portal Pages, a handbook serving as a guide to traveling abroad, and financial aid information. StudyAbroad.com is a service of Educational Directories Unlimited, Inc. (EDU), a leading Internet company serving higher education. Based in suburban Philadelphia, EDU's steady growth since its inception in 1989 has led to its inclusion in the Philadelphia 100, Inc. Magazine/ICIC Inner City 100, and Inc. 500 lists of fast growing businesses.