Countries by Listed domestic companies, total
China ranks 1st with 11,231 listed domestic companies, more than double the combined totals of Canada (4,226) and the United States (4,010), which rank 2nd and 3rd respectively. At the other end, the Cayman Islands ranks 87th with just 4 listed companies. The 280,675% spread between top and bottom reflects how differently national stock exchange ecosystems have developed across the world.
Ranking 2024
Analysis
This metric counts listed domestic companies, including foreign companies which are exclusively listed, defined as those which have shares listed on an exchange at the end of the year. Investment funds, unit trusts, and companies whose only business goal is to hold shares of other listed companies, such as holding companies and investment companies, regardless of their legal status, are excluded. A company with several classes of shares is counted only once. Values are absolute counts. Data cover 87 countries from the World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator code CM.MKT.LDOM.NO, data year 2024). Of the 87 countries, 79 (90.8%) have data from the last seven years, and 100% of datapoints are classified as official-quality. Ten extreme outliers were identified at the 3-sigma threshold, including China at 11,231.
China's rank 1 total of 11,231 listed domestic companies is a significant outlier relative to the rest of the ranking. Canada (rank 2, 4,226) and the United States (rank 3, 4,010) are closely grouped, followed by Japan (rank 4, 3,971) and India (rank 5, 2,673). Korea (rank 6, 2,599) and Hong Kong SAR (rank 7, 2,449) also rank in the top ten, alongside Australia (rank 8, 1,853) and the United Kingdom (rank 9, 1,606). Malaysia (rank 10, 1,031) is the only other country to exceed 1,000 listings. These top-ranked countries generally operate large, long-established exchanges with broad sectoral coverage.
The middle of the ranking shows notable variation. Indonesia (rank 11, 903), Thailand (rank 12, 860), and Poland (rank 13, 749) outrank several larger economies. Bangladesh ranks 14th with 691 listed companies, ahead of France (rank 19, 457) and Germany (rank 21, 435). Mexico, often considered a major emerging market, ranks only 41st with 129 listed companies. Jamaica (rank 46, 101) exceeds Argentina (rank 50, 85) and Colombia (rank 59, 60). At the lower end, Rwanda ranks 86th with 5 companies and the Cayman Islands ranks last at 87th with just 4.
This metric counts only companies listed at year-end on a national exchange and does not capture the size, liquidity, or market capitalization of those listings. A country with many small or thinly traded listings will rank equally alongside one with fewer but larger companies. Reporting consistency varies: 78.2% of countries have data from the latest year (2024), meaning some values reflect earlier periods. Jurisdictions like Bermuda (rank 82, 10) and the Cayman Islands (rank 87, 4) are known incorporation or domicile centers, so their low listing counts may not reflect the full scope of financial activity registered in those territories. Cross-listed companies included only when exclusively listed on that exchange, which limits comparability across markets with high dual-listing activity.
Methodology
Data are sourced from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code CM.MKT.LDOM.NO, for data year 2024. The metric measures listed domestic companies, including foreign companies which are exclusively listed, defined as those which have shares listed on an exchange at the end of the year. Investment funds, unit trusts, and companies whose only business goal is to hold shares of other listed companies, such as holding companies and investment companies, regardless of their legal status, are excluded. A company with several classes of shares is counted once. Values are absolute counts. The ranking covers 87 countries, above the 80-country coverage threshold. Of these, 79 countries (90.8%) have data from the last seven years. All 100% of datapoints are classified as official quality. Ten extreme outliers were identified using a 3-sigma threshold; China (11,231) is the most prominent. The average year-over-year change across the dataset is 6.4%, well within the 50% volatility threshold. The data range spans from 4 (Cayman Islands) to 11,231 (China), a spread of 280,675%.