Skip to main content

Foreign investment statistics

Statistics on who invests in Australia

Foreign economies had a total of $4.5 trillion invested in Australia at the end of 2022.

Which economies invest in Australia?

The United States and United Kingdom are the biggest investors in Australia, followed by Belgium, Japan and Singapore.

China is our tenth largest foreign investor, with 1.9 per cent of the total. However, the levels of Hong Kong (SAR of China) and Chinese investment in Australia have grown significantly over the past decade.

The table below shows the top 20 foreign investors in Australia at the end of 2022. Yearly values are in A$ billion and include both direct, portfolio investment and other investment.

Which economies invest in Australia?
2022, A$ billion

Rank in 2022 Economy 2020 2021 2022 % of total % change 2021 to 2022 5-year trend
% growth
1 United States 925.9 1,049.5 1,092.2 24.1 4.1 3.0
2 United Kingdom 770.1 722.1 1,007.0 22.2 39.4 11.5
3 Belgium (a) 408.6 393.9 359.0 7.9 -8.9 4.8
4 Japan 265.1 258.0 257.4 5.7 -0.2 2.9
5 Singapore 115.9 121.5 148.6 3.3 22.3 11.4
6 Hong Kong (SAR of China) 139.3 124.1 132.9 2.9 7.1 2.9
7 Canada 64.7 75.5 99.6 2.2 31.9 15.5
8 Luxembourg 107.0 92.4 89.0 2.0 -3.7 3.4
9 Netherlands 84.4 88.3 87.6 1.9 -0.9 1.2
10 China 81.2 91.4 85.1 1.9 -6.9 6.4
11 Switzerland 61.9 69.5 74.1 1.6 6.7 7.4
12 New Zealand 68.4 69.1 72.2 1.6 4.4 9.8
13 France 42.9 43.4 54.0 1.2 24.5 11.3
14 Germany 46.9 48.6 52.5 1.2 8.1 0.9
15 Bermuda 42.4 42.5 45.4 1.0 6.6 -1.2
16 Ireland 37.6 40.4 38.5 0.9 -4.5 11.7
17 India np 27.8 34.5 0.8 24.2 ..
18 Norway 25.6 28.3 30.1 0.7 6.2 9.3
19 Republic of Korea 31.1 29.8 28.1 0.6 -5.5 0.3
20 Virgin Islands, British 25.4 23.5 23.0 0.5 -2.3 -0.8
  All economies 4,013.5 4,104.1 4,530.7 100.0 10.4 5.5

(a) The majority of total investment from Belgium is portfolio investment liabilities in the form of debt securities (Belgium hosts a major clearing house and depository for euro-denominated bonds and other securities, Euroclear).
np = not publish ..= not meaningful
Based on ABS catalogue 5352.0. Last Updated: May 2023.

How does this compare with other economies?

Australia has the 15th-highest amount of direct foreign inward investment in the world.

The table below shows how our level of direct inward investment compared with other economies in 2021. Yearly values are in US$ billion.

Economies ranked by direct foreign inward investment
2021, US$ billion

Rank in 2021 Economy 2019 2020 2021 % of total % change 2020 to 2021 5-year trend
% growth
1 United States 9,362.9 10,813.5 13,619.0 30.0 25.9 15.1
2 United Kingdom 2,045.1 2,219.9 2,634.2 5.8 18.7 10.4
3 Netherlands 1,454.7 2,719.5 2,576.2 5.7 -5.3 15.6
4 China 1,769.5 1,918.8 2,064.0 4.5 7.6 8.8
5 Hong Kong, China 1,867.7 1,851.5 2,022.2 4.4 9.2 2.6
6 Singapore 1,738.5 1,952.0 2,007.3 4.4 2.8 11.7
7 Canada 1,156.1 1,235.6 1,437.8 3.2 16.4 10.1
8 Switzerland 1,460.4 1,423.9 1,369.6 3.0 -3.8 1.1
9 Ireland 1,212.8 1,346.8 1,362.5 3.0 1.2 9.8
10 Germany 963.6 1,107.8 1,139.1 2.5 2.8 6.6
11 Luxembourg 192.3 1,104.6 1,013.9 2.2 -8.2 43.9
12 British Virgin Islands 909.3 950.9 990.2 2.2 4.1 4.7
13 France 854.9 963.8 978.0 2.2 1.5 6.6
14 Spain 769.3 864.8 819.7 1.8 -5.2 6.5
15 Australia 732.9 794.7 770.3 1.7 -3.1 4.6
16 Belgium 597.8 617.3 604.6 1.3 -2.0 2.2
17 Brazil 705.0 595.3 592.8 1.3 -0.4 1.0
18 Mexico 567.8 545.6 578.8 1.3 6.1 5.4
19 Cayman Islands 498.8 522.4 548.3 1.2 5.0 4.9
20 Russian Federation 493.2 449.1 521.9 1.1 16.2 4.8
  Other economies 7,177.0 7,729.9 7,798.3 17.2 0.9 5.4
  All economies 36,529.5 41,727.6 45,448.8 100.0 8.9 4.5

Source: UNCTAD World Investment Report - Annex tables. Last Updated: October 2022.

Related links

Back to top