VXUS vs VEA vs VT: How Much Do International ETFs Really Overlap?
VT and VXUS share more than eight thousand holdings yet overlap by under 40%. The international sleeve is where shared-holding counts mislead most — here is what the weighted data actually shows.
Disclaimer: This content is not investment advice. Investing involves the risk of loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Always consult a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.
The international portion of a portfolio is where overlap is hardest to eyeball. Domestic funds are easy — you recognize the top ten names and can sanity-check them. Ex-US funds hold thousands of companies most investors could not name, across overlapping regional definitions, so people fall back on the fund label. That is exactly when a weighted overlap score earns its keep.
Here is what our own holdings data says about the pairings investors actually run into.
The Headline Case: 8,401 Shared Holdings, 38.01% Overlap
The live VT vs VXUS comparison shows 8401 shared holdings — the largest shared-holding count anywhere on this site — and a weighted overlap of just 38.01%, a Moderate Overlap verdict.
Eight thousand shared positions sounds like near-total duplication. It is not, and the reason is structural rather than subtle.
Vanguard Total World Stock (VT) holds the entire global market, U.S. included. Vanguard Total International Stock (VXUS) holds the same global market minus the U.S. So every non-U.S. company VXUS owns also sits inside VT — hence the enormous shared count. But roughly six-tenths of VT's weight is U.S. equity, and none of that has any counterpart in VXUS.
Under the weighted formula, only the smaller of the two weights counts:
Overlap = Σ min(weight in VT, weight in VXUS)
The U.S. half of VT pairs with nothing, so it contributes zero regardless of how many international names the two funds share. Count says duplicate; weight says complement. Weight is the one that describes your portfolio.
| Holding | Weight in VT | Weight in VXUS | Overlap contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd | 1.51% | 3.93% | 1.51% |
| Samsung Electronics Co Ltd | 0.64% | 1.65% | 0.64% |
| ASML Holding NV | 0.50% | 1.30% | 0.50% |
| SK hynix Inc | 0.43% | 1.12% | 0.43% |
| Tencent Holdings Ltd | 0.34% | 0.87% | 0.34% |
Where International Funds Genuinely Duplicate Each Other
The opposite pattern shows up between funds covering the same region under different labels:
| Pair | Overlap | Shared holdings | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| EFA vs IEFA | 85.15% | 695 | Same issuer, same region — near-duplicates |
| VEA vs VXUS | 71.93% | 3855 | Developed ex-US sits inside total ex-US |
| VEA vs IEFA | 62.1% | 2013 | Same mandate, different index provider |
| VWO vs IEMG | 55.65% | 1492 | Same emerging mandate, different country rules |
| VT vs VXUS | 38.01% | 8401 | One includes the U.S., the other excludes it |
| VEA vs VWO | 0% | 0 | Developed and emerging — no overlap at all |
Read that table top to bottom and the shared-holding column tells you almost nothing useful. The pair with the fewest shared holdings and the pair with the most sit at opposite ends of the overlap scale from what the counts would suggest.
The Three Mistakes This Data Exposes
Holding EFA and IEFA together. At 85.15%, these are the international equivalent of owning the same fund twice. Both are iShares developed-markets funds tracking the same broad universe; the differences are in index vintage and cost structure, not exposure. If both are in your account, it is usually because one arrived through an old 401(k) menu and the other through a brokerage purchase.
Assuming VEA and VXUS are interchangeable. They overlap 71.93%, which is high but not complete. VEA covers developed markets only; VXUS adds emerging markets and a deeper small-cap tail. The 3855 shared names are the developed-market core they have in common — the gap is the emerging exposure VEA does not carry. Swapping one for the other quietly changes your emerging-market allocation.
Pairing VT with VXUS for "more international." This is the trap the headline number exposes. Investors add VXUS on top of VT expecting to increase international weight, and they do — but they are also buying a second copy of every international holding VT already owns, while leaving the U.S. portion untouched. A cleaner expression is usually one total-world fund, or a domestic fund plus an ex-US fund, rather than a total-world fund plus an ex-US fund.
What Zero Overlap Looks Like
VEA vs VWO registers 0% with 0 shared holdings — a Low Overlap verdict, and a genuinely clean split. FTSE's developed and emerging classifications are mutually exclusive, so a company appears in exactly one of the two funds.
That makes VEA and VWO a textbook complementary pair. It also makes them a useful reference point: when a pair scores 0%, the two funds are doing entirely separate jobs, and any overlap you find elsewhere in your international sleeve is a deliberate choice rather than an accident of index design.
How to Audit Your Own International Sleeve
- Start with the broadest fund you hold. If it is a total-world fund, everything else international you own is at least partially inside it.
- Check each additional international position against that anchor, not just against its obvious rival.
- Read the weighted score, not the shared count. As the table above shows, the count can point the wrong way by a wide margin in this asset class specifically.
- Watch the developed/emerging boundary. Two funds can look similar and carry very different emerging-market weights, which is often the real difference in returns.
- Check the region definitions. Whether Korea counts as developed or emerging, and whether Canada is included, varies by index provider — and that is frequently what separates two otherwise identical-looking funds.
For the mechanics behind the score, see the ETF comparison methodology guide. For the same lesson in a domestic setting, RSP vs VOO shows two funds holding the identical 500 companies at 46.13% overlap. And for a full portfolio pass, see how to reduce ETF portfolio overlap.
Conclusion
International ETFs are where counting shared holdings fails most badly. 8401 shared positions between VT and VXUS produce 38.01% overlap, while 695 shared positions between EFA and IEFA produce 85.15%. The counts are inverted relative to the actual duplication.
Measure your own international pairs at ETF Overlap Checker — free, no account required.