In 2025, the global equity market reached a record $157.8 trillion in market capitalization, up more than $25 trillion from 2024.
This visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Gabriel Cohen, highlights the world’s major equity markets based on their 2025 market capitalization.
Data has been sourced from the World Federation of Exchanges via SIFMA.
The World’s Biggest Stock Market
With a total market capitalization of $68.9 trillion, the U.S. is by far the world’s largest equity market, accounting for roughly 44% of the global total.
The U.S. is home to the world’s two preeminent stock exchanges, the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq. Shares in the overwhelming majority of the country’s largest public companies are traded on these two exchanges.
The table below lists the world’s major equity markets as of the end of 2025.
| Rank | Country | Market cap in 2025 ($T) | Share (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇺🇸 United States | 68.9 | 44% |
| 2 | 🇨🇳 China | 15.5 | 10% |
| 3 | 🇪🇺 European Union | 15.5 | 10% |
| 4 | 🇮🇳 India | 10.6 | 7% |
| 5 | 🇯🇵 Japan | 7.6 | 5% |
| 6 | 🇭🇰 Hong Kong | 6.1 | 4% |
| 7 | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 5.6 | 4% |
| 8 | 🇨🇦 Canada | 4.6 | 3% |
| 9 | 🇦🇺 Australia | 2.0 | 1% |
| 10 | 🇸🇬 Singapore | 0.8 | 1% |
| -- | 🌐 Other Developed Markets | 13.6 | 9% |
| -- | 🌐 Other Emerging Markets | 6.9 | 4% |
| -- | 🌎 World Total | 157.8 | 100% |
The U.S. has seen its dominance in global equities strengthen over the past decade. Its share of global equity market capitalization has risen by more than 10 percentage points since 2012, when it accounted for roughly one-third of the total.
Part of this rise has been driven by the strong performance of U.S.-listed tech companies like Apple, Alphabet, and NVIDIA, each of which is part of the so-called Magnificent Seven.
China and the EU Are Nearly Tied
China ranks as the world’s second-largest equity market, narrowly ahead of the European Union. Both round to $15.5 trillion in market capitalization.
Even at that scale, each market is less than one-quarter the size of the $68.9 trillion U.S. market. Notably, many prominent Chinese companies are also listed in Hong Kong, which is itself a $6.1 trillion market.
Equities in both China and the EU have faced pressure as investors weighed geopolitical uncertainty. Nonetheless, EU-listed equities gained nearly 40% in year-over-year value as markets reacted positively to increased German spending and relative policy certainty compared with the United States.
Asia’s Other Stock Market Giants
Beyond China, Asia is home to several other major equity markets, including India ($10.6 trillion), Japan ($7.6 trillion), and Singapore ($824 billion).
Of the three, India had the most difficult 2025. Compared with nearly 19% average growth across global equities, Indian stocks gained just 2.5% on average.
A lack of domestic AI champions was a significant factor. As equities in South Korea, Taiwan, and the U.S. soared, investors redirected capital away from Indian companies.
To learn more about how the U.S. retail giants compare in annual sales, check out Which Are the Biggest Retailers in the U.S.? on Voronoi.