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FLOW ATLASBilateral foreign direct investment

STC requirement

Based on ever implementing an STC, regardless of the map year.

Countries on the map

Shows ties involving any selected country.

Data and interpretation

UNCTAD bilateral FDI, 1985–2024. Amounts are in US dollars, converted from the source’s millions of US dollars.

Inflows use the recipient’s report. Outflows use the investor’s report. Numeric direct reports take precedence, with mirror fallback for missing direct reports.

Mirror assistance checks the partner’s direct report of the same flow when the original mirror is absent. It also uses a nonzero mirror or partner report when a direct value is zero. This is an exploratory substitution, not a verified correction. Original, mirror, and reciprocal partner values remain available for inspection.

Zero and missing amounts have no map lines. Missing is never converted to zero. Negative flows are net negative transactions within the investor–recipient relationship, not investment in the opposite direction.

The inherited state-system sample excludes some economies and territories, including Hong Kong. Totals are partial observed totals, not world FDI totals. Direct and mirror reports can disagree.

Present-day geography, Natural Earth public-domain boundaries. Connections are schematic, not physical routes. Historical SCG uses a Serbia-area point.

STC shading follows the supplied country-year in-force indicator, not the adoption indicator. Tooltips show the in-force year. The source codes Liechtenstein and Monaco as zero when absent from the STC lookup, and applies a Serbia proxy to SCG in 2005.

Source, changes and reuse

Source credit
UNCTAD, FDI/MNE database. Bilateral FDI flows, 1985–2024. This is an independent visualization; no endorsement by UNCTAD or the United Nations is implied.

Data use confirmed by UNCTAD
In email correspondence with Keith A. Preble, UNCTAD confirmed: “There is no restriction for the bilateral FDI data.” This confirmation concerns the bilateral FDI data supplied by UNCTAD. The reply did not specify a named license; this atlas does not designate these data as CC BY 3.0 IGO or public domain.

Source attribution and the description of changes are retained for transparency. UNCTAD’s confirmation concerns its bilateral FDI data, not the separate STC indicators or the atlas software.

Changes in this atlas
Country names and codes are harmonized to the research sample; values are converted from millions of US dollars to US dollars; available bilateral reports are aggregated for country totals. Optional mirror assistance uses corresponding partner reports to fill gaps and can replace reported zeroes with nonzero mirror or partner values. These substitutions are exploratory. Source values are preserved, and missing reports remain missing. STC indicators are a separate input.

Country totals are partial sums of available bilateral reports, not complete national FDI totals. Data CSV downloads are currently disabled. PNG and SVG map and chart exports remain available and include a source and reuse note.

CAPITAL ACROSS BORDERS

Bilateral FDI atlas

Explore where investment flows, compare country totals, and chart bilateral trends.

Where investment flows

Explore bilateral investment connections across the world.

Reporting perspective

Year 2023

19852024

Map flow visibility Show positive flows Show negative flows

Minimum magnitude

Zero / mirror treatment

Map layout Shade countries with STCs in force STC in force in the selected year

Positive flows…

Negative flows…

Net observed flow…

Numeric reports / eligible pairs…

Partial totals for the selected countries and year, before sign and magnitude filters.

Global network

Loading data…

InflowsPositiveNegativeArrow = investor → recipient

Shaded countries have STCs in place in the selected year.

Node size shows total magnitude of displayed FDI received (absolute amounts), in both reporting perspectives. Ties wrap across map edges. Click a line to inspect.

Europe detail

Same filters and node scale as the world map.

Connections involving countries in this region. Off-map ties continue to the edge. Click a line to inspect.

Bilateral relationships

Each row is one direction of investment. Click a row for its reports and history. Use the dropdown to inspect records hidden from the map.

Investor	Recipient	Annual flow	Source

RELATIONSHIP DETAIL

Select a connection

Click a line or table row to inspect its reports and annual history.

Country totals

Sorted by net total. Click a country to explore its bilateral flows. Reports shows available numeric partner reports / eligible partners.

Country	Net FDI	Positive flows	Negative flows	Reports

Chart type

First year

Last year

Vertical scale

Display units

Investor

Recipient

Compare up to eight directed country pairs.

Bilateral FDI trends

View chart values and reporting sources

Year	Investor	Recipient	Annual flow	Source

Source, changes and reuse · UNCTAD data use confirmed