How to Read BEA Direct Investment Statistics — Positions, Income, Foreign Parent vs Ultimate Owner

As of 24 October 2026 (KST); latest release: Direct Investment by Country and Industry, 2025, released by BEA at 8:30 a.m. EDT on July 21, 2026. Primary sources: https://www.bea.gov/news/2026/direct-investment-country-and-industry-2025 and https://www.bea.gov/news/dici-release-additional-information^[2][4]

Comparison basis: these are annual year-end positions, so the previous year is also the year-ago comparison. 2024 positions are BEA's revised figures published with the 2025 release; the release states 2025 positions to two decimals in trillions; adding the published change to the revised 2024 level gives approximately $7.14 trillion and $5.86 trillion, consistent with the published rounded totals (an approximate check by this page). BEA notes that it now uses coarsening, "which includes rounding, aggregation, and the use of ranges". The release page and its PDF are one BEA release and are counted as one issuer record.^[2]

In three lines 1. Direct investment is defined by ownership or control of 10 percent or more of voting securities; BEA's positions, valued at historical cost, cover direct investors' equity in, and net outstanding loans to, their affiliates. 2. At the end of 2025 the U.S. direct investment position abroad rose $438.1 billion to $7.14 trillion, and foreign direct investment in the United States rose $266.0 billion to $5.86 trillion. 3. The next release, for 2026, is scheduled for July 2027.^[2][3]

Direct investment: "Direct investment is a category of cross-border investment associated with a resident in one economy having control or a significant degree of influence on the management of an enterprise resident in another economy. Ownership or control of 10 percent or more of the voting securities of an entity in another economy is the threshold for separating direct investment from other types of investment."^[3]

Position: "The direct investment position is the value of direct investors' equity in, and net outstanding loans to, their affiliates. Changes in the position result from financial transactions and other changes, including capital gains and losses, currency-translation adjustments, and other changes in volume and valuation".^[3]

Income: "Income earned on direct investment includes income on equity—whether profits or losses and whether distributed or reinvested—and net interest on debt."^[3]

Source data: "BEA's direct investment statistics are primarily based on data reported in the Quarterly Survey of U.S. Direct Investment Abroad (BE–577) and the Quarterly Survey of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States (BE–605)."^[3]

Historical cost, not market value. "The direct investment positions in this release are valued at historical cost. Positions reflect the book value of direct investors' equity in, and net outstanding loans to, their affiliates." BEA adds: "This differs from the market value measure featured in the U.S. net International Investment Position (IIP) Accounts".^[3]

Directional basis. "This release presents statistics on a directional basis rather than on the asset/liability basis featured in the U.S. International Transactions Accounts (ITAs) and the U.S. net IIP Accounts". Direct investment figures in this release therefore are not directly comparable with the direct investment lines of the international investment position.^[3]

Immediate counterpart vs ultimate owner. "The countries identified in this release reflect the location of the immediate counterpart, unless otherwise noted." "A foreign parent is the first person or entity outside the United States in a U.S. affiliate's ownership chain that has a direct investment interest in the affiliate." "The country of the UBO is often the same as that of the foreign parent, but it may be a different country or the United States."^[2][3]

Country of foreign parent vs ultimate beneficial owner. "Japan was the top investing country with a position of $776.3 billion, followed by the Netherlands ($751.8 billion), Canada ($747.3 billion), and the United Kingdom ($738.3 billion)." On the UBO basis, "By country of the ultimate beneficial owner (UBO), the entity at the top of the global ownership chain, Japan was the top investing country in terms of position at the end of 2025, with $827.1 billion. Canada ($819.8 billion) was second, and Germany ($706.2 billion) was third." BEA explains the difference: "On the UBO basis, investment from the Netherlands and Luxembourg was much lower than by the country of foreign parent, indicating that much of the investment from foreign parents in these countries was ultimately owned by investors in other countries."^[2]

Industry of affiliate vs industry of parent. "By industry of the directly owned foreign affiliate, investment was largest in holding companies, which accounted for 45.8 percent of the overall position abroad in 2025." Classified by the U.S. parent instead, "By industry of the U.S. parent, investment by manufacturing MNEs accounted for 50.2 percent of the position, followed by MNEs in finance and insurance (15.8 percent)."^[2]

Position vs income. The U.S. position abroad rose to $7.14 trillion and its income rose 11.1% to $660.1 billion; the foreign position in the United States rose to $5.86 trillion while its income fell 1.9% to $310.1 billion (published figures).^[2]

First published vs revised. The 2024 U.S. position abroad was revised from 6,827 to 6,698 billion and the 2024 foreign position in the United States from 5,708 to 5,598 billion, reductions of 129 and 110 billion (this page's calculation); BEA says the earlier years "are revised with this release to incorporate newly available and revised source data."^[2]