International Equity ETF Flows More than Doubled 2024 Totals
Funds tracking foreign equity markets set new records in 2025, taking in $217 billion in assets.
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International exchange-traded funds hit a “six” in 2025 (that’s the cricket equivalent of a home run, by the way.)
Foreign equities performed exceptionally well last year, nearly doubling US stock returns. Ipso facto, ETFs tracking international equity markets experienced similar highs, with inflows setting records at $217 billion, more than twice what they totaled in 2024, according to Morningstar Direct data. The “sell America” trend that was supposed to materialize post-Liberation Day tariff impositions never actually happened, at least not to a sustained degree. However, that didn’t stop investors from pooling heavily into international products, driven largely by a weaker US dollar, per Morningstar. In fact, of the top 25 best performing international equity ETFs, only four suffered outflows. (That’s basically like the industry bowling over all the wickets, or whatever.)
On Top of the World
If we just shared the top five funds of 2025, it would mostly be BlackRock. Its iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY) took the No. 1 spot, surging nearly 100% while taking in almost $1.9 billion. Meanwhile, the iShares funds tracking Peruvian, Spanish and Polish markets all experienced returns greater than 75% and raked in about $575 million collectively. Here are some of the other top international equity ETFs of 2025:
- Franklin FTSE South Korea ETF (FLKR) jumped roughly 92% and pulled in $26.3 million.
- VanEck Africa ETF (AFK) performance shot up 69% while gaining $33 million in flows.
- Freedom 100 Emerging Markets ETF (FRDM) increased 60%, while bringing in $465 million in new assets last year.
Back Down to Earth: While anyone who went big on international ETFs is probably feeling really good about themselves right about now, this year could be very different. “A lot is up in the air going into 2026,” Zachary Evens, manager research analyst at Morningstar, told ETF Upside. “I won’t speculate on expected returns, but there’s still a lot of uncertainty in markets related to central bank policy, economic growth, geopolitical risk and other factors.”
