Foreign investment inflows

Net direct investment from abroad as a share of GDP.

measured by: World Bank
originally from: International Monetary Fund, Balance of Payments statistics
years covered: 1970–2025
subject: Economic

Higher is generally taken as better.

How this is measured

Net inflows of foreign direct investment — equity, reinvested earnings and loans between a parent and its affiliate — over GDP. It records transactions, not law: the figure can be negative when capital leaves, a single large acquisition can double a small country’s number for a year, and financial centres book flows that only pass through. Luxembourg has recorded both −392% and, in other years, some of the highest inflows on file. That is why it is not in the economic freedom index, though it remains available to the builder and the formula editor.

Ranked for 2025

87 countries and territories have a figure for 2025. This is the most recent year the series covers well; the viewer holds every year from 1970.

#	Country	Region	Investment
1	Suriname	Americas	45.1%
2	Cyprus	Europe	27.1%
3	Timor-Leste	Asia-Pacific	13.3%
4	Kosovo	Europe	10.0%
5	Cambodia	Asia-Pacific	9.9%
6	Montenegro	Europe	7.3%
7	Albania	Europe	6.1%
8	Costa Rica	Americas	5.4%
9	Georgia	Eurasia	4.3%
10	Israel	Middle East & North Africa	4.3%
11	Egypt	Middle East & North Africa	4.2%
12	Chile	Americas	4.1%
13	Serbia	Europe	3.9%
14	Dominican Republic	Americas	3.9%
15	Bulgaria	Europe	3.7%
16	North Macedonia	Europe	3.5%
17	Honduras	Americas	3.5%
18	Brazil	Americas	3.4%
19	Thailand	Asia-Pacific	3.3%
20	Lithuania	Europe	3.2%
21	Peru	Americas	3.1%
22	Uzbekistan	Eurasia	3.0%
23	Canada	Americas	3.0%
24	Sweden	Europe	2.9%
25	Czechia	Europe	2.7%
26	Saudi Arabia	Middle East & North Africa	2.6%
27	Colombia	Americas	2.5%
28	Paraguay	Americas	2.4%
29	Mexico	Americas	2.4%
30	Slovenia	Europe	2.3%
31	Moldova	Eurasia	2.3%
32	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Europe	2.2%
33	Romania	Europe	2.2%
34	France	Europe	2.2%
35	El Salvador	Americas	2.1%
36	Armenia	Eurasia	2.1%
37	Democratic Republic of the Congo	Sub-Saharan Africa	2.1%
38	Australia	Asia-Pacific	2.0%
39	Poland	Europe	1.9%
40	Palestine	Middle East & North Africa	1.9%
41	United Kingdom	Europe	1.9%
42	Germany	Europe	1.9%
43	Morocco	Middle East & North Africa	1.8%
44	Belarus	Eurasia	1.7%
45	Ghana	Sub-Saharan Africa	1.7%
46	Philippines	Asia-Pacific	1.6%
47	Indonesia	Asia-Pacific	1.5%
48	Spain	Europe	1.5%
49	Qatar	Middle East & North Africa	1.4%
50	Nigeria	Sub-Saharan Africa	1.4%
51	New Zealand	Asia-Pacific	1.4%
52	Slovakia	Europe	1.3%
53	Uruguay	Americas	1.3%
54	United States	Americas	1.3%
55	Burundi	Sub-Saharan Africa	1.0%
56	Panama	Americas	1.0%
57	Japan	Asia-Pacific	1.0%
58	Ecuador	Americas	1.0%
59	India	Asia-Pacific	1.0%
60	Bolivia	Americas	1.0%
61	Angola	Sub-Saharan Africa	0.9%
62	Russia	Eurasia	0.9%
63	South Korea	Asia-Pacific	0.8%
64	Latvia	Europe	0.5%
65	Azerbaijan	Eurasia	0.5%
66	Tajikistan	Eurasia	0.5%
67	Argentina	Americas	0.5%
68	Pakistan	Asia-Pacific	0.5%
69	Brunei	Asia-Pacific	0.4%
70	China	Asia-Pacific	0.4%
71	Bangladesh	Asia-Pacific	0.4%
72	Kuwait	Middle East & North Africa	0.3%
73	Italy	Europe	0.0%
74	Belize	Americas	0.0%
75	Finland	Europe	-0.1%
76	Lesotho	Sub-Saharan Africa	-0.2%
77	Kazakhstan	Eurasia	-0.3%
78	South Africa	Sub-Saharan Africa	-0.5%
79	Iceland	Europe	-0.5%
80	Switzerland	Europe	-1.2%
81	Norway	Europe	-1.5%
82	Estonia	Europe	-1.8%
83	Austria	Europe	-2.0%
84	Trinidad and Tobago	Americas	-3.1%
85	Belgium	Europe	-4.0%
86	Hungary	Europe	-28.4%
87	Luxembourg	Europe	-92.8%

Data by year

Show 56 yearly JSON rankings

Follow a year link to open the complete world ranking, including country names, values, positions, source and licence.

Source and licence

World Bank — World Development Indicators

CC BY 4.0. World Bank, World Development Indicators How every source was checked

Other economic statistics

Trade openness Tax revenue as a share of GDP Government spending as a share of GDP Regulatory quality GDP per capita GDP growth Inflation Unemployment Income inequality Extreme poverty Government debt