Vanguard Total International Stock ETF (VXUS)

What the fund owns and how it works

VXUS is the ETF share class of Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund. It seeks to track the FTSE Global All Cap ex US Index, which covers large, mid, and small companies across developed and emerging markets outside the United States. Securities are weighted by free-float-adjusted market capitalization under the benchmark's country, liquidity, and investability rules.

The fund can use sampling when holding every eligible security is not operationally efficient. Its portfolio spans many currencies, exchanges, and settlement systems. U.S. dollar returns therefore reflect both local share-price changes and currency translation. The current benchmark name belongs in the main record; predecessor indexes belong only in the historical-performance note.

Why readers compare or use it

VXUS is the single-fund counterpart to pairing VEA with VWO. The combined pair also covers developed and emerging markets, but the holder chooses how much to place in each fund and must rebalance that split. VXUS lets one FTSE global benchmark determine country and segment weights from their investable market values.

It is also compared with EFA, although EFA is substantially narrower. EFA excludes Canada, emerging markets, and the small-cap segment. VXUS includes all three. A holding-count comparison alone understates those boundary differences.

The developed-emerging allocation is not fixed in the prospectus as a policy percentage. It changes as eligible markets rise, fall, issue shares, or receive new classifications. That makes VXUS simple to maintain, but it does not preserve a chosen regional allocation.

Trade-offs to understand

Combining many markets does not eliminate concentration. The largest developed countries and companies still receive the greatest weights, while emerging markets form a smaller portion of the total. Broad coverage also exposes shareholders to multiple tax regimes, ownership limits, currencies, political systems, and market-access rules.

The fund's U.S. trading day overlaps imperfectly with foreign exchanges. Market price can respond to new information after underlying markets close, creating an apparent premium or discount to a net asset value based partly on earlier local prices. Foreign withholding taxes, spreads, expenses, and sampling can contribute to tracking difference.

Closest alternatives

VEA separates developed markets and includes Canada and small companies. VWO isolates FTSE emerging markets and includes eligible China A shares. EFA provides a legacy EAFE large-and-mid-cap portfolio. VT combines U.S. and international stocks in one global benchmark. A U.S. total-market fund paired with VXUS lets the holder choose the domestic-versus-foreign allocation.

What can change

FTSE Russell can alter country status, size segmentation, investability screens, and free-float factors. The market-weighted developed-emerging split changes as prices, share counts, and accessibility change. Vanguard can revise fees, sampling methods, and share-class terms through current documents. Holding count, yield, country exposure, assets, spread, and premium or discount are point-in-time figures published with as-of dates. A new benchmark or methodology transition would change the countries and size segments in scope.

Evidence and links

Primary evidence: the Vanguard VXUS profile and current prospectus, the FTSE Global Equity Index Series ground rules, and FTSE country-classification materials.

Editorial sources

• Issuer page
• SEC ETF glossary
• Benchmark source
• Supporting source

Related reading

• EFA
• GLD
• IAU
• IEMG
• VEA
• VNQ
• VT
• VTI
• VWO
• Diversification
• Expense ratio
• Net asset value NAV
• What is an ETF
• What is an index fund