Data extracted in January 2026
Planned article update: March 2027
Highlights
In 2024, Europe was the second largest location of foreign direct investment stocks in the world, accounting for almost a third (31.4%) of the world’s inward investment positions.
In 2024, Europe was the leading outward investor in the world, accounting for almost two fifths (39.8%) of the world’s outward investment stocks.
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Source: UNCTAD (foreign direct investment)
Globalisation patterns in EU trade and investment is an online Eurostat publication presenting a summary of recent European Union (EU) statistics on economic aspects of globalisation, focusing on patterns of EU trade and investment.
In an attempt to remain competitive, business relationships may extend well beyond international trade in goods and services. Indeed, there is a growing reliance upon different forms of industrial organisation, including the ownership of foreign affiliates, overseas investment, mergers, joint ventures, subcontracting, offshoring or licensing agreements. Foreign direct investment (FDI) is one such economic strategy and is the subject of this article.
Data for the world aggregate and data for non-EU countries have been converted from United States dollars to euro. Annual average exchange rates have been used for FDI flows and end-of-year rates for FDI stocks (positions).
Stocks of foreign direct investment
In 2024, Europe accounted for 39.8% of the world’s outward investment positions
The international investment position of a country details its stock of financial assets and liabilities; for the purpose of this article these stocks are measured at the end of each year (although more detailed statistics are collected at the end of each quarter). FDI stocks reflect the accumulated value held at the end of the reference period, reflecting the value of stocks at the start of the year, adjusted for any transactions (flows) which take place during the year and any changes in the value of positions other than transactions (for example, revaluations due to exchange rates or other price changes).
Between 2014 and 2024, Northern America became a more common location for foreign investment
There was a relatively strong decline between 2014 and 2019 in the share of global FDI stocks that were located in Europe, its share of the world total falling 2.3 percentage points (pp). However, there was a considerable change in 2020, in part reflecting the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, as investment stocks in Europe grew rapidly – the share of Europe rose 2.5 pp between 2019 and 2020, reversing the losses recorded over the previous 5 years. However, the long-term development returned, as Europe’s share dropped at an even more rapid pace – down 3.6 pp – between 2021 and 2024, when it stood at 31.4%. The overall fall in the share of global FDI stocks that were located in Europe between 2014 and 2024 was the largest (at 7.8 pp) recorded among any of the continents during the period under consideration.
The share of FDI stocks located in Latin America and the Caribbean fell (down 1.2 pp between 2014 and 2024), with falls also recorded in Africa (down 0.9 pp) and Oceania (down 0.8 pp). By contrast, the share of global direct investment located in Northern America increased at a rapid pace, up 9.7 pp. There was also a modest increase in the share of Asia, its share rising 1.0 pp.
In 2024, Europe’s outward stocks of FDI were greater than the value of inward FDI stocks held by the rest of the world within Europe; as such, Europe was a net investor. Europe was the only continent that reported being a net investor at the end of the period under consideration.
Between 2014 and 2024, Asia increased its share of the world’s outward stocks of foreign investment
The second part of Figure 1 shows relatively large fluctuations in Europe’s share of the world’s outward stocks of FDI between 2014 and 2024. In the aftermath of the global financial and economic crisis, Europe’s share had stood at close to half of the global total. From a relative high of 45.5% in 2015, it subsequently fluctuated with an overall downward development that accelerated in 2023 and 2024. Europe’s 39.8% share of the world’s outward stocks of FDI (as recorded in 2024) was its lowest share during the period under consideration.
North America had the second highest share (28.8%) of the world’s outward FDI stocks in 2024, closely followed by Asia (26.9%). Between 2014 and 2024, Europe’s share of the world’s outward FDI stocks declined considerably (down 5.3 pp), while there were much smaller decreases observed for Africa (down 0.2 pp), Oceania, and Latin America and the Caribbean (both down 0.1 pp). By contrast, there was a sizeable increase in the share of the world’s outward FDI originating from Asia (up 5.1 pp), with a more modest gain for North America (up 0.5 pp).
Stocks of foreign direct investment, by continent, 2014–24
Two stacked column charts showing stocks of foreign direct investment for each continent. The first chart shows direct investment in the reporting economy and the second chart shows direct investment abroad. Each column has six stacks representing Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Northern America and Oceania. Data are presented for 2014 to 2024 and are expressed as a percent of the world total. The complete data of the visualisation are available in the Excel file at the end of the article. For more details please use the link to the source dataset code below the image.
Stocks of foreign direct investment represent almost 40% of the world’s annual economic output
Figure 2 presents information on the size of FDI stocks relative to the size of each economy (as measured by gross domestic product (GDP)). In 2024, the ratio of the world’s outward stocks of FDI to GDP was 39.5%, while the ratio of the world’s inward stocks of FDI to GDP was 46.1%.
In 2024, the Asian economies of Hong Kong and Singapore reported particularly high degrees of ‘openness’, insofar as inward FDI stocks in both these reporting economies were valued considerably higher than their levels of GDP; the values of direct investment stocks in Hong Kong and Singapore were 5.7 and 4.1 times as high as their GDP, respectively. In all of the remaining economies presented in Figure 2, the value of inward FDI stocks was less than the economic output of the country / geographical aggregate concerned; the next highest shares were recorded in the United Kingdom (where inward FDI stocks represented 89.0% of GDP) and Canada (82.4%).
Direct investment stocks in the EU were valued at 39.1% of GDP in 2024, which was somewhat lower than the global average. Aside from Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Canada (all mentioned above), the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Australia and Brazil were the only other global competitors (among those shown in Figure 2) that recorded a higher ratio than the EU. At the other end of the scale, inward stocks of FDI represented 20.0% of GDP in China, with lower ratios recorded in South Korea (15.4%), India (14.1%), Türkiye (13.6%), Russia (10.3%) and Japan (5.5%). This relatively low ratio in Japan resulted from an absence of foreign investment in most economic activities, aside from the manufacture of machinery and motor vehicles.
Most ‘open’ economies have considerable stocks of both inward and outward investment
Reversing the analysis and considering the relative importance of outward stocks of FDI from each economy, a general pattern emerges whereby many of those countries which were ‘open’ to a high degree of market penetration in the form of inward FDI were also found to have high ratios of outward FDI relative to GDP. This supports a view that some economies seek to gain a competitive advantage by encouraging free trade and investment opportunities, whereas other countries are more ‘inward-looking’.
Nevertheless, there were some exceptions: for example, the ratio of stocks of direct investment abroad relative to GDP was 53.6% for Japan in 2024 (almost 10 times as high as its ratio of inward FDI stocks relative to GDP) – suggesting that while it was relatively commonplace for Japanese enterprises to invest in foreign countries, it was far less common for foreign enterprises to invest in Japan. A similar pattern was observed in South Korea (where the ratio for outward investment was almost 3 times as high as that for inward investment). By contrast, the value of stocks of direct investment abroad from Mexico, Türkiye, Brazil and India was relatively low (both in relation to GDP and in relation to the value of stocks of inward investment).
These differences between ratios for inward and outward stocks of FDI may also be used to identify which economies were net investors in 2024; this was the case for the EU, Japan, Canada, South Korea, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and Russia.
Stocks of foreign direct investment, relative to GDP, 2024
A double column chart showing stocks of foreign direct investment relative to GDP. Data are shown for the world, for the EU and for selected countries. The columns represent direct investment in the reporting economy and direct investment abroad. Data are presented for 2024 and are expressed in percent. The complete data of the visualisation are available in the Excel file at the end of the article. For more details please use the link to the source dataset code below the image.
Table 1 provides details relating to the size of the top 20 non-financial multinational enterprise groups in the world in terms of their foreign assets. The information comes from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
In 2024, half (5 out of 10) of the world’s leading multinational enterprise groups in terms of foreign assets had their headquarters in the EU: the Volkswagen Group (Germany) and Stellantis NV (the Netherlands) were specialised in the manufacture of motor vehicles, Deutsche Telekom AG (also Germany) was specialised in information and communication services, TotalEnergies SE (France) was specialised in energy activities, while Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (Belgium) was specialised in the manufacture of beverages (principally the brewing of beer).
Looking more widely across the top 20 non-financial multinational enterprise groups in 2024, there were 9 located in the EU (4 from Germany, and 1 each from Belgium, Spain, France, Italy and the Netherlands). There were also three multinational enterprise groups from each of Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, alongside a single group from each of China and Hong Kong.
The share of foreign assets in total assets was generally very high for most multinationals shown in Table 1. In 2024, foreign assets accounted for more than four fifths of all assets in 9 out of the top 20 enterprises, with shares rising to more than 90.0% for CK Hutchison, British American Tobacco, Shell and Stellantis. By contrast, in 5 of these 20 multinational enterprises, a majority of assets were located in the domestic economy: Mercedes-Benz Group (52.1%), Exxon Mobil (60.7%), Volkswagen Group (61.1%), Microsoft (61.8%) and China National Petroleum Corp (75.8%).
Source: UNCTAD (World Investment Report 2025)
The stock of foreign investment in China was 3.9 times as high in 2024 as it had been in 2014
Developments for both inward and outward stocks of FDI are shown in Table 2. There were 7 countries where the value (in current prices) of inward FDI stocks more than doubled between 2014 and 2024; the highest growth rates were recorded in China, the United States, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore (where inward stocks of FDI were more than 3 times as high in 2024 as they had been in 2014).
The pace of change was even more rapid concerning the level of FDI stocks abroad: in 2024, outward stocks from China and from the United Arab Emirates were 4.1 times as high as they had been in 2014. It should be noted that the total value of these stocks had been, in 2014, still relatively small (compared with the levels recorded for the EU or the United States). The next highest growth was recorded for South Korea (where the value of outward stocks of FDI was 3.4 times as in 2024 as it had been in 2014).
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Source: Eurostat (bop_fdi6_pos) and UNCTAD (foreign direct investment)
The final presentation of information concerning inward and outward stocks of FDI presents the share of world investment stocks among the leading global players (see Figure 3). In 2024, some 14.4% of global inward investment stocks were located in the EU; its share of global outward investment was considerably higher, reaching 22.2%. The EU recorded the second highest shares of outward and inward investment in 2024, with the United States accounting for a higher share of the world’s FDI: 30.6% of the world’s FDI was located in the United States, while the United States held 22.4% of the world’s stock of FDI abroad. China accounted for the third highest share of global FDI stocks both for inward and for outward investment.
Stocks of foreign direct investment, 2024
Two pie charts showing stocks of foreign direct investment. The first chart shows investment in reporting countries while the second chart shows investment abroad. The charts show the shares of the EU and other principal partners in world stocks, with a residual for the rest of the world. Data are shown for 2024 in percent. The complete data of the visualisation are available in the Excel file at the end of the article. For more details please use the link to the source dataset code below the image.
Foreign direct investment flows
FDI flows comprise capital provided by a foreign direct investor to an FDI enterprise, or capital received from an FDI enterprise by a foreign direct investor. These flows are composed of 3 components: equity capital, reinvested earnings and intra-company loans. Global flows of FDI were valued at €1 440 billion in 2024, based on an average of inward and outward flows.
In 2024, Europe was the world’s second largest source of foreign direct investment, behind Asia
Figure 4 shows the share of global flows of FDI accounted for by each continent during the period 2014 to 2024. Note the sudden change in the geographical structure of investment flows since 2018 that may be attributed, at least in part, to recent crises. There was a dramatic fall in the world’s inward investment flows in 2020 (down 48.7%), while outward flows fell slightly more (down 52.2%). The recovery in 2021 was larger in terms of outward flows (up 185.1%) than inward flows (up 86.4%), with more subdued changes from 2022 to 2024 (less than +/-10.0% for global inward and outward flows).
Global FDI developments followed a fluctuating pattern, with a restructuring of investment flows resulting in generally less investment being directed towards Europe and more towards other continents, particularly Asia. While Europe’s share of the world’s inward investment fell from a high of 40.5% in 2015 to 12.6% by 2024, Asia saw an increase in its share, rising from 25.4% in 2015 to a peak of 55.0% in 2022 before falling somewhat to 43.6% in 2024.
A similar pattern was observed for direct investment abroad (outward investment). Europe’s share of the global total fell rapidly from 48.2% in 2018 to -6.1% at the start of the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 (the negative share reflecting net outflows). It subsequently rebounded to 40.1% in 2021 before declining again in 2022. In the following 2 years, Europe’s share of the world’s direct investment abroad increased at a steady pace, reaching 30.3% of the global total in 2024.
Asia (36.8%) had an almost identical share of the world’s flows of FDI abroad in 2017 as did Europe (36.6%), but accounted for more than half of the world’s outward investment flows between 2018 and 2020. Despite its share of outward investment falling, Asia reclaimed its position (from Europe in 2021) as the world’s leading foreign investor from 2022 to 2024, with shares in the range of 44.6% to 45.2%.
Flows of foreign direct investment, by continent, 2014–24
Two line charts showing flows of foreign direct investment by continent. The first line chart presents direct investment into the reporting economy and the second chart presents direct investment abroad. Six lines are shown for each chart representing Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Northern America and Oceania. Data are shown for 2014 to 2024 and are expressed in percent of the world total. The complete data of the visualisation are available in the Excel file at the end of the article. For more details please use the link to the source dataset code below the image.
Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, developments for FDI flows were quite irregular (similar to the pattern observed for international trade in goods). Large increases in investment flows were observed in 2015, 2019 and 2021. By contrast, there was a large fall in global investment flows in 2018, with an even greater contraction in 2020 (coinciding with the onset of the COVID-19 crisis).
Developments of global FDI flows are often strongly influenced by particularly large changes observed for just 1 or 2 countries / geographical aggregates.
- Looking at inward flows, the large increase observed in 2015 reflected considerable changes in the level of FDI flows into the EU and the United States, while the large decrease observed in 2020 reflected very large reductions in the level of FDI flows into the United States, Brazil, Canada and Singapore.
- Turning to outward flows, the large increase in 2015 mainly reflected changes reported for the EU, while the large decrease observed in 2020 reflected changes for Japan and the United Kingdom. The rebound in investment abroad in 2021 largely reflected increased levels of investment abroad from the EU and the United Kingdom.
FDI flows entering the United States were considerably higher in 2024 than they had been in 2014
Among the economies presented in Table 3, the highest increases in absolute terms for inward flows of FDI between 2014 and 2024 concerned investment in the United States, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates (with increases of €105.8 billion, €77.3 billion and €33.8 billion, respectively). By contrast, the highest relative growth was recorded in the United Arab Emirates, as its inward flows of FDI in 2024 were 5.1 times as high as in 2014. Among the remaining countries, Singapore and South Korea were the only other countries to report inward flows of FDI more than doubling between 2014 and 2024.
Between 2014 and 2024, Japan and China became increasingly important investors in the global economy
The largest absolute increases in outward FDI flows between 2014 and 2024 were observed for Japan (€90.3 billion higher) and China (€57.7 billion higher). There was also a marked increase in investment from the United Kingdom, although this from a position in 2014 when net capital movements were largely negative, as withdrawals, repayments, and/or divestments exceeded new investments. The highest relative growth rates were recorded for India, the United Arab Emirates and South Korea; in these countries, outward flows of FDI more than doubled between 2014 and 2024.
Another interesting aspect of the information presented in Table 3 is the transformation of the balance between inward and outward flows of FDI to/from certain countries. For example, Brazil, India, Mexico, Singapore and Türkiye were consistently net recipients of investment during the period 2014 to 2024; this was also the case in Australia (except in 2022) and in Hong Kong (except in 2014). By contrast, Canada, Japan and South Korea were net investors; this was also the case for the EU (except in 2020). The picture was more varied for China (which was frequently a net investor) and the United States (which was more often a net recipient). South Africa turned from being a net investor up to 2017 to a net recipient thereafter, while the United Kingdom was a net recipient in most years before 2021 and a net investor thereafter.
Geopolitical concerns may also impact on the development of investment flows. For example, there was a considerable decrease in flows of inward and outward investment to and from Russia between 2014 and 2015, reflecting the introduction of economic sanctions and restrictions on access to capital markets for the Russian banking sector (which may have impacted this sector in the form of capital flight). Inward flows to Russia turned negative in 2022 (reflecting divestment) and were at relatively low levels thereafter, while outward flows fell substantially from their record level in 2021 (consistent with the broader impact of sanctions, corporate retreats and reduced access to western capital markets).
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Source: Eurostat (bop_fdi6_flow) and UNCTAD (foreign direct investment)
In 2024, the United States was the world’s largest outward investor and also the largest recipient of inward investment
Among the selected economies for which data are shown (see Figure 5), the United States was the host economy that received the highest level of inward FDI in 2024, with an 18.5% share of the world total. The economy of Singapore received 9.5% of the world’s FDI, while Hong Kong (8.4%) and China (7.7%) received somewhat smaller shares. Inward FDI into the EU was negative, due to disinvestment exceeding new investment by an amount equivalent to -14.7% of the world total for inward investment.
The United States was also the leading outward investor among those economies for which information is presented; it accounted for around a sixth (16.6%) of the world’s FDI flows abroad in 2024. The next highest shares were registered for Japan (12.7%) and China (10.1%). Outward FDI originating from the EU accounted for 4.0% of the world total in 2024.
Flows of foreign direct investment, 2024
A bar chart showing flows of foreign direct investment. The first half of the chart shows investment flows into reporting economies and the second half shows investment flows abroad. The chart shows the shares of the EU and other principal partners in world flows, with a residual for the rest of the world. Data are shown for 2024 in percent. The complete data of the visualisation are available in the Excel file at the end of the article. For more details please use the link to the source dataset code below the image.
Source data for tables and graphs
Context
Statistics on foreign direct investment
FDI is an investment made by a resident enterprise in an economy (direct investor or parent enterprise) with the objective of establishing a lasting interest in an enterprise that is resident in another economy (direct investment enterprise). This implies the existence of a long-term relationship between the direct investor and the direct investment enterprise, as well as the ability to exercise some form of control/influence over business decisions. Indeed, this effective voice in the management of the foreign enterprise is one of the principal differences between FDI and other forms of investment, such as portfolio investment (where the investor does not seek to control the foreign enterprise) or other assets (for example, intellectual property rights).
FDI data are based on international standards: since 2013, these data follow the standards laid out in the IMF’s Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, 6th edition (BPM6) and the OECD's Benchmark Definition of Foreign Direct Investment, 4th edition (BD4). Within the financial account of the balance of payments, a positive sign represents an increase in an asset or a liability to which it relates, while a negative sign represents a decrease. Therefore, a plus sign denotes a net increase in financial assets or liabilities, while a minus sign refers to a net decrease in financial assets or liabilities.
There are 4 broad types of FDI:
- the creation of productive assets, for example, establishing a new plant/office abroad (so-called ‘greenfield investment’)
- the purchase of existing assets abroad through acquisitions, mergers or takeovers (‘brownfield investment’)
- the extension of capital, which relates to additional investments being made to expand an established business
- financial restructuring, which refers to investments for debt repayment or loss reduction
Important: note that the data presented for the EU include special purpose entities (SPEs), while those for the rest of the world exclude SPEs. From an economic standpoint, the inclusion of SPEs may distort the geographic distribution of FDI statistics as it can appear that countries receive or make investments when in reality the funds are simply being passed through holding companies and other similar structures. For this reason, statistics excluding SPEs should generally be preferred for economic analyses of FDI, as they remove those flows of FDI that have little or no impact on ‘real’ economies. On the other hand, as part of the balance of payments, the inclusion of SPEs should generally be favoured insofar as the main objective for this type of analyses is to measure all (direct) cross-border monetary transactions, irrespective of whether these are through SPEs or not.
Multinational enterprises
A wide range of factors may influence an enterprise when it decides if it wishes to (re)locate (some) production abroad, including the size and distance of the foreign market, its growth prospects, wage and productivity levels, or regulatory and legal regimes. However, investment decisions are often focused on profits. As the relative price of transport and communications fell, it became considerably easier for multinational enterprises to consider moving their production locations across the globe. For example, this may lead to benefits from cost savings that may be linked to lower labour costs or local resource endowments of raw materials. In a similar vein, the provision of some services has also been affected, as witnessed by the concentration of call centres / helpdesks and software developers in some countries. Furthermore, FDI provides enterprises with the possibility of accessing protected and regulated service markets through the establishment of a commercial presence in the host economy.
Data sources
Some economists argue that, compared with international trade, FDI creates deeper links between economies, thereby stimulating technology transfers and fostering the exchange of know-how, which in turn drives productivity and makes economies more competitive. Governments often use economic arguments as a reason for seeking to attract FDI, based on the premise that it can help generate economic growth and provide jobs.
On the other hand, other economists provide a range of counter arguments, highlighting the role played by some multinational enterprise groups in ‘stripping’ resources or exploiting lower labour and environmental standards in host economies. Furthermore, there is a considerable amount of literature around corporate responsibility, ethics and tax-optimisation/avoidance techniques that may be adopted by multinational enterprise groups. As such, there remains a sizeable debate over the motives and redistributive effects of FDI.
Within this article the analyses of FDI are based on the following continents: Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America (composed of Central America and South America) and the Caribbean, Northern America and Oceania. The composition of each continent is defined according to a classification provided by the the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Within this article the analyses of FDI are based on a fixed list of countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the EU, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Explore further
Other articles
Database
Thematic section
Methodology
- Balance of payments
- Balance of payments – International transactions (BPM6) (ESMS metadata file – bop_6_esms)
External links
- European Commission – A global Europe: leveraging our power and partnership
- European Commission – Reflection paper on harnessing globalisation (COM(2017) 240)
- International Monetary Fund – data
- United Nations Conference on Trade and Development – World investment report
- United Nations Statistics Division – national accounts data