Global foreign direct investment (FDI) rose by 6% to $1.6 trillion in 2025. Such flows play a key role in development. FDI can strengthen an economy's ability to produce goods and services, absorb and deploy new technologies and participate more effectively in global value chains. In 2025, such flows accounted for about half of total external financing to developing economies.
But global totals tell only part of the story. FDI is increasingly concentrated in a small number of economies and sectors. This can hide important differences between regions and economies at different levels of development.
Annual FDI can rise or fall sharply. Large transactions, corporate restructuring, financing within multinational companies and flows through major financial centres can all affect the totals. A sudden increase does not always mean an equivalent rise in new productive investment.
The Foreign Direct Investment Explorer brings those differences into view. Choose the economies, regions and indicators that matter to you. See how investment patterns have shifted and how individual economies compare with wider regional and global trends.
Follow the changing geography of investment
Use the interactive graph to explore FDI trends since 1990. You can:
- Track global investment over time
- Compare economies, regions and development groups
- Switch between investment inflows and outflows
- Compare an economy or region with the global trend
- Download the data for further analysis
See the trends behind the global totals
Start with some of the key trends highlighted in the World Investment Report 2026:
- Follow the world’s leading investment economy. The United States remained both the largest recipient and the largest source of FDI in 2025. Compare its inflows and outflows with those of other major economies.
- Explore India’s growing role. India drove strong growth in South Asia, with inflows rising by 44% to $39 billion.
- Compare South-East Asia’s rising destinations. Inflows increased by 51% in Malaysia and by 30% in Thailand. Compare their trends with Singapore, one of the world’s five largest recipients.
- Track South America’s rebound. Brazil remained the largest recipient in Latin America and the Caribbean, with inflows rising by 23% to $77 billion. Inflows to Peru nearly doubled.
- Find emerging destinations in Africa. Inflows to Guinea increased more than fivefold to about $8 billion.
Understand the data
The Explorer shows annual FDI flows:
- Inflows measure FDI received by an economy
- Outflows measure FDI made abroad by investors from an economy
These figures show investment flows during each year. They do not show the total stock of foreign investment accumulated over time.
The figures come from the UNCTAD FDI/MNE database. More information on data sources and statistical methods is available in the methodological notes accompanying the World Investment Report.