Money

Ranked: Top Countries for Foreign Direct Investment Flows

Published

2 years ago

September 28, 2023

Samidha Nayak

Featured Creator

Article/Editing:

Pallavi Rao

One of the most significant phenomena in 21st-century globalization, driven by the ascent of multinational corporations and the removal of investing barriers, is the vast cross-border flow of foreign capital.

To analyze recent trends, Samidha Nayak utilized World Bank data spanning 2012–2022, charting the top 10 destinations for foreign direct investment (FDI) and the leading investing countries annually.

A chart showing the top foreign direct investment flows (inflows) between 2012–2022.

Countries With the Most FDI Inflows (2012–2022)

In 2012, the United States had the highest FDI inflow, attracting about $250 billion in investment from the rest of the world.

ℹ️ Foreign direct investment is when a resident in one economy has 10 percent or more of the ordinary shares of voting stock of a resident enterprise in a different economy.

At second place, China’s FDI inflows stood about $9 billion lower at $241 billion.

The middle ranks have representatives from Europe (Netherlands, Cyprus), from Asia (Hong Kong) and from South America (Brazil).

Towards the bottom, three OECD countries—Germany, Ireland, and Australia—all attracted an average of $60 billion in foreign investment.

Unexpectedly, the British Virgin Islands came in 8th. Their lack of corporate tax makes it a popular place for companies to headquarter, in turn attracting FDI inflows.

2012	Country	2012 Inflows (USD Billion)	2022	Country	2022 Inflows (USD Billion)
1	🇺🇸 U.S.	$250.35	1	🇺🇸 U.S.	$388.08
2	🇨🇳 China	$241.21	2	🇨🇳 China	$180.17
3	🇳🇱 Netherlands	$239.67	3	🇸🇬 Singapore	$140.84
4	🇧🇷 Brazil	$92.57	4	🇭🇰 Hong Kong	$120.95
5	🇭🇰 Hong Kong	$74.89	5	🇫🇷 France	$105.42
6	🇨🇾 Cyprus	$69.97	6	🇧🇷 Brazil	$91.50
7	🇩🇪 Germany	$65.44	7	🇦🇺 Australia	$67.12
8	🇻🇬 British Virgin Islands	$61.12	8	🇨🇦 Canada	$53.71
9	🇮🇪 Ireland	$58.09	9	🇸🇪 Sweden	$50.05
10	🇦🇺 Australia	$57.55	10	🇮🇳 India	$49.94

Ten years later however, the top 10 saw a shuffle. The U.S. and China retained their top spots, but the difference grew much larger—with the U.S. attracting nearly 50% more foreign investment ($388 billion) than China ($180 billion).

Singapore, which first appeared in the rankings in 2014, took third place with $141 billion.

Meanwhile the bottom half changed almost entirely with France, Canada, Sweden, and India replacing Cyprus, Germany, the British Virgin Islands, and Ireland.

Countries With the Most FDI Outflows (2012–2022)

Unlike the ranks of net inflows, the top 10 countries with the highest FDI outflows have stayed essentially the same.

A chart showing the top foreign direct investment flows (outflows) between 2012–2022.

The U.S. topped the list in both ends of the decade, despite briefly falling out of the top 10 entirely in 2018. There were only three new entrants (France, Australia, and the UK) in 2022 compared to 10 years prior, with Cyprus, Switzerland, and the British Virgin Islands dropping out of top spots.

2012	Country	2012 Outflows (USD Billion)	2022	Country	2022 Outflows (USD Billion)
1	🇺🇸 U.S.	$377.24	1	🇺🇸 U.S.	$426.25
2	🇳🇱 Netherlands	$237.94	2	🇩🇪 Germany	$178.87
3	🇯🇵 Japan	$117.63	3	🇯🇵 Japan	$175.40
4	🇩🇪 Germany	$99.08	4	🇬🇧 UK	$158.93
5	🇭🇰 Hong Kong	$88.12	5	🇨🇳 China	$149.69
6	🇨🇾 Cyprus	$75.25	6	🇳🇱 Netherlands	$125.89
7	🇨🇳 China	$64.96	7	🇦🇺 Australia	$123.36
8	🇨🇦 Canada	$62.25	8	🇫🇷 France	$118.76
9	🇨🇭Switzerland	$54.30	9	🇭🇰 Hong Kong	$106.86
10	🇻🇬 British Virgin Islands	$53.94	10	🇨🇦 Canada	$83.11

Many of the countries who are in the top ranks for inflows (U.S., China, Canada, Australia) are also in the top ranks for outflows both in 2012 and 2022.

This article was published as a part of Visual Capitalist's Creator Program, which features data-driven visuals from some of our favorite Creators around the world.

Related Topics:china india fdi netherlands singapore foreign investment trade war foreign direct investment Ireland U.S.FDI inflows FDI outflows British Virgin Islan

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Money

Mapped: Financial Literacy Levels in All 50 U.S. States

Which Americans are the best at managing their money? This financial literacy audit reveals the best and worst.

Published

4 days ago

April 19, 2025

Pallavi Rao

Mapped: Financial Literacy Levels in All 50 States

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Key Takeaways

Minnesota is the most financially literate state, scoring 73/100 according to WalletHub’s latest analysis.
Arkansas scores the worst, with 53/100.

How well are Americans managing their money, and how does it vary between the states?

This financial literacy map attempts to answer both questions using 2025 data from WalletHub, a personal finance services company.

They ranked and scored states on three main benchmarks: financial education, financial planning (or consumer habits), and how Wallethub’s own users performed on their financial literacy survey.

ℹ️ These benchmarks are further subdivided into 17 metrics (credit score, savings, personal finance courses, etc.) and are weighted differently. Please read the source’s methodology section for a full breakdown.

The Most Financially Savvy U.S. State

See this visualization first on the Voronoi app.

Minnesota is the most financially literate U.S. state with 73 points, according to WalletHub’s latest analysis.

Here’s some sub indicators where Minnesota outperformed the rest of the country.

High-schoolers must take at least one personal finance program.
Only 15% of the surveyed Minnesotans spent more than they made—the lowest across all states.
Highest median credit score in the country (751).

And here’s how each state scores out of 100. Figures are rounded.

Rank	State	State Code	Total Score (Out of 100)
1	Minnesota	MN	73
2	Colorado	CO	69
3	Nebraska	NE	69
4	Virginia	VA	69
5	Wisconsin	WI	68
6	New Hampshire	NH	68
7	Iowa	IA	67
8	Washington	WA	67
9	Vermont	VT	67
10	New Jersey	NJ	67
11	Maryland	MD	67
12	Florida	FL	66
13	Utah	UT	66
14	Pennsylvania	PA	65
15	Maine	ME	65
16	Michigan	MI	65
17	Oregon	OR	65
18	North Carolina	NC	65
19	Ohio	OH	65
20	Indiana	IN	65
21	Missouri	MO	65
22	Arizona	AZ	64
23	Massachusetts	MA	64
24	Kansas	KS	64
25	Connecticut	CT	64
26	Delaware	DE	64
27	North Dakota	ND	64
28	West Virginia	WV	63
29	Texas	TX	63
30	Idaho	ID	63
31	Rhode Island	RI	63
32	Illinois	IL	62
33	Georgia	GA	62
34	Wyoming	WY	62
35	New York	NY	61
36	Nevada	NV	61
37	South Carolina	SC	61
38	Montana	MT	60
39	New Mexico	NM	60
40	Alabama	AL	60
41	Hawaii	HI	60
42	District of Columbia	DC	58
43	California	CA	58
44	Alaska	AK	58
45	Louisiana	LA	58
46	Mississippi	MS	58
47	Tennessee	TN	58
48	Kentucky	KY	57
49	South Dakota	SD	56
50	Oklahoma	OK	54
51	Arkansas	AR	53

Meanwhile, Arkansas tested the worst, with 53 points. Its score is impacted by having the second-worst performance on WalletHub’s financial literacy survey.

And here’s each state’s rank within the three main benchmarks.

Rank	State	WalletLiteracy Rank (50% Weight)	Financial Planning Rank (25% Weight)	Financial Knowledge Rank (25% Weight)
1	Minnesota	7	2	3
2	Colorado	8	1	20
3	Nebraska	9	25	6
4	Virginia	31	9	1
5	Wisconsin	14	6	14
6	New Hampshire	4	8	23
7	Iowa	10	27	15
8	Washington	12	3	30
9	Vermont	5	20	26
10	New Jersey	15	29	12
11	Maryland	13	11	22
12	Florida	37	16	9
13	Utah	47	10	2
14	Pennsylvania	26	23	17
15	Maine	1	28	40
16	Michigan	22	22	19
17	Oregon	46	21	4
18	North Carolina	35	37	8
19	Ohio	29	43	7
20	Indiana	33	40	10
21	Missouri	40	39	5
22	Arizona	18	33	25
23	Massachusetts	20	7	39
24	Kansas	11	35	35
25	Connecticut	50	5	11
26	Delaware	28	15	29
27	North Dakota	23	13	37
28	West Virginia	25	47	13
29	Texas	41	38	16
30	Idaho	39	19	28
31	Rhode Island	32	18	34
32	Illinois	27	32	33
33	Georgia	34	44	21
34	Wyoming	3	30	43
35	New York	24	17	42
36	Nevada	45	31	24
37	South Carolina	30	34	41
38	Montana	2	36	47
39	New Mexico	21	48	36
40	Alabama	44	42	27
41	Hawaii	19	12	48
42	District of Columbia	17	24	49
43	California	42	4	46
44	Alaska	6	14	51
45	Louisiana	43	49	32
46	Mississippi	36	51	31
47	Tennessee	49	41	38
48	Kentucky	51	45	18
49	South Dakota	16	26	50
50	Oklahoma	38	50	45
51	Arkansas	48	46	44

There’s some further insights to explain some noticeable geographic trends.

Colorado and Nebraska also require personal finance education in high school.
Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Arkansas have the lowest share of adults with emergency cash.
A higher share of Southern state residents borrow from non-bank lenders, affecting their financial planning score.

The Overlooked Part of Financial Literacy: Managing Debt

While investing in the markets is all the rage—particularly with the rise of no-fee platforms—WalletHub’s benchmarks prioritize an often overlooked part of money management: debt.

America’s credit card debt collectively crossed $1 trillion in 2023, and it’s only been growing since.

On average, American households have about $5,000 in outstanding credit card balances, which can take anywhere between one to two years to pay off depending on monthly incomes.

Of course, managing expenditures to avoid or reduce debt has been particularly difficult in the multiple years of post-pandemic inflation.