Foreign-controlled enterprises statistics - inward FATS

Data extracted in October 2026

Planned article update: October 2027

Highlights

In 2024, foreign-controlled enterprises accounted for 1.1% of enterprises that were active within the EU's business market producers.

In 2024, approximately one quarter of the total value added in the business market producers of the EU was generated by foreign-controlled enterprises.

In 2024, the United States accounted for the largest share of the EU workforce employed by foreign affiliates in the EU that were ultimately controlled by residents from outside the EU.

Structural business statistics on inward foreign affiliates provide information that may be used to measure the impact of globalisation, for example, through indicators covering net turnover, employment, productivity or innovation performance. The statistics presented in this article concern activities within the business market producers, as defined by NACE Sections B-S (except Section O and Division 94).

Statistics on foreign affiliates

For statistical purposes, foreign affiliates are considered to be enterprises resident in one country and controlled by a unit resident in another. There are two distinct sources of information: so-called inward FATS which cover the activities of enterprises within the EU that are under foreign control, and outward FATS which cover the activities of EU affiliates abroad.

The globalised economy is increasingly characterised by intricate business networks. As a result, it can be difficult to untangle these complicated and often blurred chains of control. To do so, statistics on foreign affiliates are compiled according to the ultimate controlling institutional unit (UCI) — determined by proceeding up a foreign affiliate's chain of control until there is no further controlling interest; by doing so, potential double-counting of the same affiliates (by several countries) can be avoided. In this context, control refers to the ownership of a controlling share of the shareholders' voting power and the ability to determine the general policy of an enterprise, for example by choosing appropriate directors. In this way, an enterprise is said to be controlled by an institutional unit when the latter (a single investor or a group of investors acting together) owns — directly or indirectly — more than half of the voting shares in the enterprise.

Foreign-controlled enterprises in the EU

Foreign-controlled enterprises in the EU represented only 1.1% of the enterprise population

In 2024, foreign-controlled enterprises accounted for just 1.1% of enterprises that were active within the EU's business market producers. Close to 60% of foreign-controlled enterprises were ultimately controlled by a unit resident in another EU country, while the remainder were controlled from outside the EU. As such, geographical proximity would appear to be an important determining factor when foreign investors consider their options — perhaps reflecting some caution to first invest in nearby markets (which may also be culturally and/or linguistically close) before considering investments further afield (both geographically or culturally). Indeed, the attractiveness of different countries can often be linked to proximity, historical, cultural or linguistic ties. For example, a high proportion of the foreign-controlled enterprises in Ireland were ultimately controlled by units from the United Kingdom and the United States.

The contribution of foreign-controlled enterprises to economic performance was much greater, both in terms of employment and, in particular, value added, than in terms of the number of enterprises. This may be explained, at least in part, by foreign-controlled enterprises generally being much larger in size than domestic (or nationally controlled) enterprises. In 2024, foreign-controlled enterprises provided work to almost one in seven (15.5%) persons that were employed within the EU's business market producers; their share of total value added was considerably higher, as foreign-controlled enterprises contributed 24.2% of the EU total.

In 2024, non-EU countries controlled almost three-quarters of the foreign-controlled enterprises in Ireland

In 2024, nearly a third (27.7%) of all enterprises in the business market producers in Luxembourg were foreign-controlled; this share was considerably higher than in any of the other EU countries, as the next highest share was in Estonia (11.8%). At the other end of the range, the share of foreign-controlled enterprises in the total enterprise population was less than 1.0% in Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain. The lowest shares were recorded in Italy and Poland (0.3%).

In 2024, a significant majority of foreign-controlled enterprises in Slovakia (80.1%) and Portugal (71.1%) were ultimately under the control of a unit from another EU country. At the other end of the range, almost three-quarters of the foreign-controlled enterprises in Ireland (74.3%) and a bit over half of the foreign-controlled enterprises in Malta (58.3%) were controlled by institutional units resident outside the EU.

In 2024, over two-fifths of the business market producers workforce of Luxembourg were employed by foreign-controlled enterprises

As for the number of enterprises, Luxembourg recorded the highest share in 2024 — among the EU countries — of its business market producers workforce employed by foreign-controlled enterprises (45.2%); note also that there is a sizeable financial services sector in Luxembourg and that this too is characterised by a strong international presence. Ireland also had a high share (27.7%) of its business market producers workforce employed by foreign-controlled enterprises (see Figure 1).

In addition to Luxembourg and Ireland, 3 other EU countries had a significant presence of foreign-controlled enterprises in their business economy workforce in 2024 — Slovakia (27.6%), Romania (27.5%) and Czechia (27.2%) — many characterised by relatively low wage costs and high numbers of people working for foreign-controlled enterprises in the manufacturing sector, often controlled by units from other EU countries.

In a few countries, a majority of those working for foreign-controlled enterprises in 2024 were employed by an enterprise that was controlled from outside the EU, the largest share by far was employed in Ireland (79.4%).

In Ireland, foreign-controlled enterprises accounted for more than two-thirds (71.6%) of total value added generated by business market producers in 2024

In 2024, at least one-seventh of the total value added in the business market producers economies of each of the EU countries was generated by foreign-controlled enterprises. Among the countries with relatively low shares were France (15.1%), Italy (17.5%) and Germany (17.7%). Meanwhile, eleven EU countries saw shares within the 20-30% range. Additionally, another eleven EU countries experienced shares between 30-60% and in Ireland foreign-controlled enterprises accounted for more than two-thirds (71.6%) of total value added in the Irish business market producers' 2024.

Foreign-controlled enterprises by economic activity

The United States accounted for the largest share of the EU workforce employed by foreign affiliates in the EU that were ultimately controlled by residents from outside the EU

Table 1 presents an analysis for some of the activities where foreign affiliates were most prominent. In 2024, among the foreign-controlled enterprises whose ultimate control was located outside the EU, the highest share of the workforce in these activities was almost exclusively accounted for by enterprises that were ultimately controlled by units from the United States. The two exceptions were the manufacture of electrical equipment, where Switzerland ranked first, and the manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products, where the United Kingdom ranked first; in both cases, the United States ranked second. For most of these activities with a high contribution of value added from foreign affiliates, Switzerland and the United Kingdom were often the second or third most common location of control outside of the EU. China and Japan also figured in the top 3, taking second and third place for the manufacture of motor vehicles and Japan being third in Manufacture of electrical equipment.