Individual Country ETFs

Investors today have more investing choices than at any time in human history. Investors can invest in South African stocks, Chinese real estate companies or small-cap stocks from India just to give a small sampling of the wide-range of choices that are now available through individual country ETFs. The only time there will ever be more choices is next year as ETF providers continue to add more choices to the ETF universe.

Here are a few notes to help you navigate through this sizeable list of choices:

China and Japan: China comes in first and Japan second for the most individual country ETFs and the gap is fairly sizeable between them and the next level.  There are a number of broad-based ETFs in addition to small-cap, sector, leveraged and dividend ETFs to choose from. If you are interested in investing in either of these countries, you likely will find an ETF or two that you find interesting.

Australia, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom: These large and developed economies each have between six and eight ETFs focusing on stocks from their country. The makeup of ETF choices is very similar between these countries as you normally have three broad based ETFs that are comprised of some the largest and well-known companies in their respective country. You also have three to five specialty ETFs (small caps, dividends, hedged, etc.). We have also listed on the individual country pages other ETFs that are weighted towards the country (approximately 30% or more) from other categories.

Brazil, Russia, India and South Korea: While BRIS certainly doesn’t have the ring that BRIC does, these four countries fall into a similar category based on types and total ETFs issued. These countries have between six and 12 ETFs which cover a broad range of ETF categories. Each of these countries has a couple of broad-based ETFs and all of these countries have leveraged ETFs as well. With the exception of South Korea, they all have small-cap ETFs and India and Brazil have sector ETFs as well. There are also hedged ETFs for both Russia and South Korea.

Other Countries: There are over 35 other countries that can be put into the same category. While the size of these countries ranges from developed economies like France to frontier markets like Nigeria, these countries are similar in the fact that most of these countries only have one to three ETFs available on U.S. exchanges that focus on their country (there are a few exceptions like Mexico who has five). Many of the countries only have a single ETF and when this occurs it likely is an ETF issued by iShares based on a MSCI index. These iShares ETFs are broad based indices that tend to be weighted towards the top holdings which generally include the largest and most recognizable stocks in those countries.

A full list of ETFs focusing on individual countries can be found at the bottom of this page or through the ETF category links found on this page.

Related Links:

List of ETFs on U.S. Exchanges