Wealthy PotVEA vs VWO: Zero Overlap, and Where South Korea Lives
VEA and VWO split the non-US stock market between them. VEA holds developed markets outside the US, 3,895 stocks, led by Japan, the UK and Canada. VWO holds emerging markets, 6,348 stocks, led by Taiwan, China and India. Their latest SEC holdings filings share no company at all. VEA costs 0.03% a year and VWO 0.06%. Over the ten years to 30 September 2026 VEA returned 9.76% a year and VWO 7.66%. One detail changes how they fit together: both track FTSE indexes, and FTSE puts South Korea on the developed side, so Samsung and SK hynix were VEA's two largest holdings and are absent from VWO. Investors who mix a Vanguard fund with an iShares fund that tracks MSCI indexes can end up holding Korea twice, or not at all.
Table of Contents
The Short Answer
- Overlap: 0%. Not one company in common. They are two halves of one job, not alternatives.
- Fees: VEA 0.03%, VWO 0.06%. On $10,000 over ten years the prospectuses show $39 against $77.
- South Korea counts as developed. Korean stocks were 10.1% of VEA in its 30 June 2026 filing and nothing in VWO's. Vanguard put Korea at 8.7% of VEA at 31 August 2026.
- Returns to 30 September 2026 (NAV): VEA 20.77% over one year and 9.76% a year over ten; VWO 12.54% and 7.66%.
- VWO is more concentrated. Taiwan Semiconductor alone was 16.3% of it, and its top ten 27.7%, against 15.0% for VEA's top ten (30 June 2026).
- Together they roughly rebuild VXUS. Vanguard's total international fund was about 74% developed and 26% emerging at 31 August 2026 by our count. At that mix, VEA plus VWO costs about 0.04% a year against VXUS's 0.05%.
Overlap: None
Our Portfolio Overlap Checker matches the two funds' SEC Form N-PORT holdings reports company by company. The newest filings are dated 30 June 2026 for VEA's fund and 31 July 2026 for VWO's.
| Overlap measure | Result |
|---|---|
| Overlap (sum of the smaller weight of each shared company) | 0.0% |
| Companies in common | 0 |
| Companies in VEA's filing / VWO's filing | 3,846 / 4,930 |
Zero is what you would expect from two indexes built by the same provider to divide the world without gaps or double counting. It means the comparison is not "which is better" but "how much of each, if any".
VEA vs VWO Side by Side
| VEA | VWO | |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF | Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF |
| Index | FTSE Developed All Cap ex US Index | FTSE Emerging Markets All Cap China A Inclusion Index |
| Expense ratio | 0.03% | 0.06% |
| Prospectus cost on $10,000, 10 years | $39 | $77 |
| Stocks held (31 Aug 2026) | 3,895 | 6,348 |
| Largest markets (31 Aug 2026) | Japan 21.1%, UK 11.3%, Canada 11.0%, Korea 8.7% | Taiwan 32.7%, China 26.5%, India 16.5%, Brazil 4.2% |
| Largest holding (30 Jun 2026) | Samsung Electronics, 3.5% | Taiwan Semiconductor, 16.3% |
| Top ten holdings (30 Jun 2026) | 15.0% | 27.7% |
| 3-year standard deviation (30 Jun 2026) | 13.88% | 12.44% |
| Indexing method | Replication | Sampling |
| Portfolio turnover | 4% | 6% |
| ETF share class net assets (31 Aug 2026) | $238.1 billion | $127.3 billion |
| Whole fund net assets (31 Aug 2026) | $323.8 billion | $168.5 billion |
| Exchange / inception | NYSE Arca / July 2007 | NYSE Arca / March 2005 |
Two lines in that table cut against intuition. VWO, the narrower-sounding fund, holds more stocks, because its index reaches into a long list of smaller emerging-market companies, including mainland China A-shares. And over the three years to 30 June 2026 VWO was the less volatile of the two by Vanguard's standard-deviation measure. That will not hold in every period, and emerging markets carry risks a volatility number does not capture: VWO's prospectus carries an "Investing in Emerging Markets" risk that VEA's does not, citing "greater custodial and operational risks", less developed legal and regulatory systems, and "greater political, social, and economic instability".
VWO's fee table carries a footnote saying its expenses were "restated to reflect current fees", so check the current figure if you are reading older material that quotes a higher one.
South Korea Is in VEA, Not VWO
Index providers do not agree on which markets are "emerging". The two that matter here are FTSE, which Vanguard uses for VEA and VWO, and MSCI, which iShares uses for IEFA, EFA, IEMG and EEM. You can see where each one puts South Korea by reading what the funds actually hold.
| Korean securities as a share of the fund | Index family | Korea | Filing date |
|---|---|---|---|
| VEA (developed) | FTSE | 10.1% | 30 Jun 2026 |
| VWO (emerging) | FTSE | 0% | 31 Jul 2026 |
| IEFA (developed) | MSCI | 0% | 31 Jul 2026 |
| IEMG (emerging) | MSCI | 22.1% | 31 May 2026 |
Within one family the pieces fit. VEA plus VWO holds Korea once; IEFA plus IEMG holds Korea once. Mix families and they do not:
- VEA plus IEMG holds Korea twice. Our checker puts their overlap at 10.6%, nearly all of it Samsung and SK hynix: Samsung was 3.17% of VEA and 6.80% of IEMG, SK hynix 3.02% and 5.82%.
- IEFA plus VWO holds no Korea. Their overlap is 0.0%, and neither holds Korean stocks. IEFA's filing also shows no Canadian securities, while VEA has Canada at 11.0%, so swapping VEA for IEFA changes more than the ticker.
Korea has not been a small detail lately. VEA's Korea weight was 4.4% at 31 August 2025 and 8.7% a year later, on Vanguard's own figures, and its two largest holdings at 30 June 2026 were Korean chipmakers. Whatever Korean stocks did over that year shows up in VEA's returns, not VWO's. Our EEM vs VWO and IEMG vs VWO pages look at the same split from the emerging side.
What Each Has Returned
| Annualized, NAV, as of 30 September 2026 | 1 year | 3 years | 5 years | 10 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VEA | 20.77% | 20.95% | 10.32% | 9.76% |
| VEA's benchmark (FTSE Developed All Cap ex US) | 21.61 | 20.98 | 10.29 | 9.81 |
| VWO | 12.54% | 17.91% | 6.62% | 7.66% |
| VWO's benchmark (spliced emerging markets index) | 12.32 | 17.92 | 6.65 | 7.81 |
| VEA minus VWO | +8.23 | +3.04 | +3.70 | +2.10 |
Developed markets led over every window shown. The prospectuses, with returns to 31 December 2025, point the same way, though over ten years the gap was much smaller: 8.74% a year for VEA against 8.16% for VWO.
| To 31 Dec 2025, NAV | 1 year | 5 years | 10 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| VEA, before taxes | 35.15% | 9.14% | 8.74% |
| VEA, after taxes on distributions | 33.97 | 8.30 | 7.94 |
| VWO, before taxes | 24.83% | 4.69% | 8.16% |
| VWO, after taxes on distributions | 23.83 | 3.70 | 7.25 |
| FTSE Global All Cap ex US (printed in both) | 31.95 | 8.04 | 8.56 |
Both prospectuses print the same broad yardstick, the FTSE Global All Cap ex US Index, which is what VXUS tracks. Over ten years it returned 8.56%, between the two. That is the case for holding both at market weight: you get the blend without having to know in advance which half leads.
Combining Them, or Buying VXUS
Vanguard's total international fund, sold as VXUS and VTIAX, tracks that FTSE Global All Cap ex US Index. Sorting its country weights at 31 August 2026 by whether each country appears in VEA's list or VWO's, we get about 74% developed and 26% emerging.
- Cost. At 74/26, VEA plus VWO works out to about 0.04% a year. VXUS charges 0.05%. On $100,000 that is roughly $38 against $50.
- Control. Two funds let you set the emerging share yourself, at 26%, 15% or 35%. VXUS fixes it at the index weight and lets it drift with markets.
- Work. Two funds drift apart and need rebalancing. VXUS rebalances itself.
- Small caps. Both VEA's and VWO's indexes are "all cap", so the pair covers large, mid and small companies, as VXUS does.
Our VEA vs VXUS and VWO vs VXUS pages cover each half against the one-fund option.
Which One Fits You
If you want all of international stocks at market weight with no upkeep, skip both and hold VXUS, or VTIAX if you prefer a mutual fund. See VTIAX vs VXUS.
If you want to set your own emerging-markets weight, hold VEA and VWO together at the split you chose, and rebalance to it. Write the split down first.
If you want developed markets only, VEA alone does that, cheaply. Know that "developed" here includes South Korea, Canada and Poland.
If you hold only VWO, you have left out Japan, Europe, the UK, Canada, Australia and Korea, most of the non-US market by value. That is a concentrated bet, and the fund itself is heavily weighted to one company, Taiwan Semiconductor.
If your 401(k) offers an MSCI-based fund for one half, pair it with the matching MSCI fund for the other half, or check Korea's weight before you mix families. Our overlap checker shows it in seconds.
This is educational information, not personalized investment advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results, and the splits above are illustrations, not recommendations.
Sources & Methodology
Every figure on this page was read from an SEC filing or from Vanguard's own published fund data.
- VEA summary prospectus, Form 497K dated 28 April 2026: 0.03% fee table, cost example, index description, replication method, turnover, and returns to 31 December 2025.
- VWO summary prospectus, Form 497K dated 27 February 2026: 0.06% fee table and its restatement footnote, cost example, index description, sampling method, emerging-markets risk disclosure, turnover, and returns to 31 December 2025.
- VXUS summary prospectus, Form 497K dated 27 February 2026: the 0.05% fee.
- Developed Markets Index Fund Form N-PORT, period ended 30 June 2026 and Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund Form N-PORT, period ended 31 July 2026: the holdings behind the overlap and Korea figures.
- iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF Form N-PORT, period ended 31 July 2026 and iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF Form N-PORT, period ended 31 May 2026: the MSCI side of the Korea table.
- VEA fact sheet and VWO fact sheet, both as of 30 June 2026: largest holdings, top-ten weights, market allocations and standard deviation.
- Vanguard VEA profile and VWO profile: stock counts, net assets and country weights as of 31 August 2026 (and VTIAX's on the same date), and quarter-end returns to 30 September 2026.
How the figures were computed. Overlap: the Portfolio Overlap Checker groups each fund's latest Form N-PORT holdings by company and sums the smaller of the two weights for every shared company. Korea: we summed the N-PORT lines whose ISIN starts with "KR", because the filings' own country field is not reliable for this (some Korean lines in VEA's filing are tagged as US). Developed/emerging split: VTIAX's country weights grouped by whether each country appears in VEA's or VWO's country list. Blended fee: weighted average of the two published expense ratios.
Limits. We did not open FTSE's or MSCI's own country-classification documents; the Korea finding comes from what the funds hold. Filing dates differ by up to two months, as labelled. Vanguard publishes no SEC yield for these funds in the data we used, so yields are not compared.
This article is for general education and is not investment, tax or legal advice. Fund data changes daily, index returns cannot be invested in directly, and past performance does not guarantee future results. International and emerging-markets investing adds currency, political and liquidity risk. Figures were checked against the sources above on 5 October 2026; confirm current figures with the issuer and consider speaking with a licensed professional before acting.
FAQ: VEA vs VWO
Is VEA or VWO better?
Neither; they hold different halves of the non-US market with zero overlap. VEA has the lower fee, 0.03% against 0.06%, and returned more over every window to 30 September 2026, including 9.76% a year against 7.66% over ten years. Most investors who own one should own the other too, or hold VXUS instead.
Do VEA and VWO overlap?
No. Matching their latest SEC holdings filings (30 June 2026 for VEA, 31 July 2026 for VWO), they share no companies.
Is South Korea in VEA or VWO?
VEA. Both funds track FTSE indexes, which count Korea as developed. Korean securities were 10.1% of VEA in its 30 June 2026 filing and none of VWO's. MSCI-based funds do the opposite: IEMG held 22.1% Korea and IEFA none.
What split of VEA and VWO matches VXUS?
About 74% VEA and 26% VWO, our calculation from Vanguard's country weights for the total international fund at 31 August 2026. The split moves with markets, so check it when you rebalance.
Is VEA plus VWO cheaper than VXUS?
Slightly. At a 74/26 mix the blended fee is about 0.04%, against 0.05% for VXUS, roughly $12 a year per $100,000. You pay for it in rebalancing work.
Can I pair VEA with IEMG or IEFA with VWO?
You can, but check Korea. VEA plus IEMG holds Korea twice (10.6% overlap, mostly Samsung and SK hynix). IEFA plus VWO holds no Korea at all, and IEFA also leaves out Canada.
Why does VWO hold more stocks than VEA?
Its index covers large, mid and small companies across many emerging markets, including mainland China A-shares. At 31 August 2026 VWO held 6,348 stocks against 3,895 for VEA.
Cite This Page
Journalists, educators and bloggers are welcome to cite this comparison. Please link back so readers can reach the underlying filings.
"VEA vs VWO: Zero Overlap, and Where South Korea Lives." Wealthy Pot, 2026. https://wealthypot.com/vea-vs-vwo/
Related comparisons: VEA vs VXUS · VWO vs VXUS · IEMG vs VWO · EEM vs VWO · VTIAX vs VXUS · VTIAX vs VTSAX · All ETF comparisons
