Which returned more over the last year, ACWI or VWO?

In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, ACWI returned +13.4% and VWO +4.8%.

Which is cheaper, ACWI or VWO?

VWO is cheaper, by 0.26 percentage points a year. That is about $26 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.

How much do ACWI and VWO overlap with the S&P 500?

By their latest filed holdings, 61% of ACWI and 0% of VWO by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

Data as of Oct 28, 2026.

Across categories

ACWI vs VWO: Differences, Returns & Fees

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Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, ACWI returned +13.4% to VWO's +4.8%; 7% of their weight is in the same names.

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Net assets: $33.0bn on Oct 28, 2026 for iShares MSCI ACWI ETF, and $125.4bn on Sep 30, 2026 for Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF.

ACWI on its own →VWO on its own →

At a glance

+13.4%

ACWI total return, 1 year

+4.8%

VWO total return, 1 year

0.32%

ACWI expense ratio

0.06%

VWO expense ratio

Pair scorecard

VWO costs 0.26 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 8.6 points; VWO is 3.8 times larger.

ACWI vs VWO: Differences, Returns & Fees
Measure	ACWI	VWO
Return
Measure	ACWI	VWO
Total return, 1 year	+13.4%	+4.8%
Drawdown
Measure	ACWI	VWO
Below its high		7.0%, high on Sep 4, 2026
Benchmark
Measure	ACWI	VWO
What it tracks	MSCI ACWI	FTSE Emerging Markets All Cap China A Inclusion Index
Cost and size
Measure	ACWI	VWO
Expense ratio	0.32%	0.06%
Net assets, as of Sep 30, 2026	$32.8bn	$125.4bn
Holdings
Measure	ACWI	VWO
Holdings in common	7%
Top ten holdings, share of the fund	24.9%	29.8%

Holdings in common uses holdings dated Sep 30, 2026 and Oct 27, 2026. Method

Risk and return

Apr 4, 2008 to Oct 23, 2026 · 968 weekly returns

ACWI VWO

Return

Total return edge ACWI +333.1% +93.6%

Annualized edge ACWI +8.2% +3.6%

Price return edge ACWI +204.7% +16.4%

Risk

Volatility edge ACWI 18.5% 22.2%

Max drawdown edge ACWI −55.3% −61.7%

Risk-adjusted

Sharpe edge ACWI 0.44 0.21

Sortino edge ACWI 0.62 0.29

Calmar edge ACWI 0.15 0.06

Reading

ACWI returned more: +333.1% to +93.6%. ACWI swung less: 18.5% to 22.2%. ACWI fell less at its worst: −55.3% to −61.7%.

Full scorecard

9 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓

Risk and return: ACWI vs VWO: Differences, Returns & Fees
Measure	ACWI	VWO	Edge	How it is measured
Return
Total return	+333.1%	+93.6%	ACWI	Price change plus distributions, reinvested.
Annualized	+8.2%	+3.6%	ACWI	Total return as a yearly rate.
Price return	+204.7%	+16.4%	ACWI	Price change alone, distributions left out.
Risk
Volatility	18.5%	22.2%	ACWI	Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier.
Downside deviation	13.2%	15.8%	ACWI	Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate.
Max drawdown	−55.3%	−61.7%	ACWI	Deepest fall from a high to the low after it.
Risk-adjusted
Sharpe	0.44	0.21	ACWI	Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility.
Sortino	0.62	0.29	ACWI	Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation.
Calmar	0.15	0.06	ACWI	Annualized return divided by the max drawdown.

Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 968 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.

What they share

By the books each fund has filed, ACWI and VWO hold 7% of their money in the same securities at the same weight. Holdings dated Sep 30, 2026 and Oct 27, 2026.

50%

0 half 100%

half

7% in common

Positions both hold · largest shared weight first ACWI VWO

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING 1.77% 15.76%

TENCENT HOLDINGS 0.29% 2.82%

ALIBABA GROUP HOLDING 0.20% 2.11%

MEDIATEK 0.17% 1.88%

DELTA ELECTRONICS 0.09% 0.95%

HON HAI PRECISION INDUSTRY 0.09% 0.80%

HDFC BANK 0.08% 0.70%

ICICI BANK 0.07% 0.60%

RELIANCE INDUSTRIES LTD 0.07% 0.69%

ASE TECHNOLOGY HOLDING 0.06% 0.61%

TC ENERGY 0.06% 0.06%

XIAOMI 0.06% 0.46%

Only in one fund ↓

Only in ACWI

APPLE 4.97%

NVIDIA 4.89%

MICROSOFT 3.66%

AMAZON.COM INC 2.39%

ALPHABET CLASS A 1.83%

BROADCOM INC 1.51%

ALPHABET CLASS C 1.44%

META PLATFORMS CLASS A 1.33%

Only in VWO

SLCMT1142 2.96%

MKTLIQ 0.95%

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd 0.65%

Bank of China Ltd 0.43%

Vale SA 0.40%

United Microelectronics Corp 0.39%

PETROBRAS - PETROLEO BRAS-PR 0.35%

ITAU UNIBANCO HOLDING S-PREF 0.34%

Check overlap with more funds →

Side by side

ACWI iShares MSCI ACWI ETF VWO Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF

Where it sits Stock ETF Stock ETF

Issuer iShares Vanguard

What it is Tracks the MSCI ACWI Tracks an index of Emerging markets

Total return, 1 year +13.4% +4.8%

Expense ratio 0.32% 0.06%

Already in the S&P 500 60.9% 0.0%

Holdings 2197 6515

Net assets, ACWI as of Oct 28, 2026 and VWO as of Sep 30, 2026 $33.0bn $125.4bn

ACWI and VWO on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.

Client brief · page 1 of 2 Report BR-53BDE5949C

ACWI and VWO do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?

What each follows. ACWI follows MSCI ACWI and VWO follows FTSE Emerging Markets All Cap China A Inclusion Index.
Holdings in common. 7% of the weight is in the same securities (holdings dated Oct 27, 2026 and Sep 30, 2026).
One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 ACWI returned +13.4% and VWO +4.8% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 8.6 points.

Data as of Oct 28, 2026.

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About each fund

ACWI

ACWI tracks the MSCI ACWI. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +13.4% with distributions reinvested. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.32% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 27, 2026, 61% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 2,197 positions, with the top ten at 24.9%.

VWO

VWO tracks an index of Emerging markets. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +4.8% with distributions reinvested. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.06% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer as of Sep 30, 2026, 0% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 6,515 positions, with the top ten at 29.8%. It sat 7.0% below its high of Sep 4, 2026 on Oct 28, 2026.

Questions people ask

Which returned more over the last year, ACWI or VWO?: In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, ACWI returned +13.4% and VWO +4.8%.
Which is cheaper, ACWI or VWO?: VWO is cheaper, by 0.26 percentage points a year. That is about $26 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
How much do ACWI and VWO overlap with the S&P 500?: By their latest filed holdings, 61% of ACWI and 0% of VWO by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

Other comparisons

ACWI vs IEMG ACWI vs EEM ACWI vs AVEM ACWI vs EMXC VT vs VWO URTH vs VWO IDEV vs VWO VGK vs VWO

Where to next

ACWI on its own →VWO on its own →Hold both: look the portfolio through →Rankings →ACWI dividend history →ACWI holdings →VWO dividend history →VWO holdings →Standards and sources →

Sources and dates

ACWI filings on SEC EDGAR ↗

ACWI prospectus with the expense ratio (SEC) ↗

iShares page for ACWI ↗

VWO filings on SEC EDGAR ↗

VWO prospectus with the expense ratio (SEC) ↗

Vanguard page for VWO ↗

Links are sources, not endorsements. A comparison is not a recommendation.

How this is computed

Overlap adds up the smaller of the two weights for each security both funds hold.

Cite this pageCitation, APA and Markdown

ETFIQ, ACWI against VWO, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/acwi-vs-vwo

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Free to use with attribution for data ETFIQ computes; issuer data stays under its owner's terms.