The world is lumpy: Interesting statistics

Do we truly live in a globalised world?

• only 2% of students are at universities outside their home countries
• only 3% of people live outside their country of birth
• only 7% of rice is traded across borders
• only 7% of directors of S&P 500 companies are foreigners
• less than 1% of all American companies have any foreign operations
• exports are equivalent to only 20% of global GDP
• FDI accounts for only 9% of all fixed investment
• less than 20% of venture capital is deployed outside the fund’s home country
• only 20% of shares traded on stockmarkets are owned by foreign investors
• less than 20% of internet traffic crosses national borders

These interesting stats are from Pankaj Ghemawat “World 3.0”, cited in The Economist.