TORONTO — The number of college and university students studying internationally has grown more than fourfold since 1975 — and Canada wants a larger share of that market.

Approximately 3.7 million students sought post-secondary education outside their home countries in 2009, compared with 800,000 in 1975, according to Unesco and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This year, the number of international students in Canada exceeded 100,000 for the first time — triple the number who studied there in 2000.

Edward Fast, the Canadian minister of international trade and for the Pacific Gateway, released a report by a government panel in August that recommended that Canada double its number of international students by 2022. It called international education “the driver for economic prosperity and social progress.”

“Last year, international students contributed more than 8 billion dollars to Canada’s economy,” Mr. Fast said by e-mail, referencing an amount equal to about $7.8 billion at current rates. “They supported 86,000 Canadian jobs.”