Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US Small-Cap ETF
$157.12−2.68 (−1.68%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.06%
- Fund size
- $14.5B
- 1Y return
- +14.7%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 2.82%
- Holdings
- 4816
- Volume · 30D
- 0.2M sh
- NAV per share
- $159.66
- 52W range
The ETF.net VSS Grade
Score 80 of 100 sits in the A band. Bands: A ≥ 70, B ≥ 55, C ≥ 40, D ≥ 25, F < 25; the scale skips E.
Cost
What you pay to own it — the expense ratio plus trading frictions, ranked within its category.AScore 97Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.AScore 100Category rankRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.DScore 31Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.BScore 68Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.AScore 72Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.AScore 91Category rank
Our read on VSS
AOne ticker for the small companies the rest of the world runs on: roughly 4,800 stocks across developed and emerging markets outside the US, at 0.06% a year. Vanguard has run it since 2009.
Seeks to track the FTSE Global Small Cap ex US Index, providing broad exposure to developed and emerging non-U.S. small-cap equity markets worldwide through passive index sampling.
Why people hold it
- 0.06% a year, against a roughly 0.40% median for international small-cap funds. Only Schwab's SCHC matches the price.
- Developed and emerging markets in the same basket, roughly 4,800 names deep, so no single country or company carries much of the load.
- Tracks its FTSE Global Small Cap ex US benchmark closely and trades tightly for a fund built on thousands of overseas small caps.
- Running since 2009, now a multi-billion-dollar fund that pays out quarterly. Long track record, deep plumbing.advisors.vanguard.com
Worth knowing
- Small caps abroad move harder than blue chips, and everything is priced back into dollars, so currency swings ride along.investor.vanguard.com
- Vanguard samples the index rather than buying every line item, so the portfolio approximates the benchmark instead of replicating it.investor.vanguard.com
- Coverage stops at the US border by design. American small caps sit entirely outside the mandate.
VSS Holdings
- Stocks
- 4,816
- 10%
- SLBBH1142
Sectors
- Industrials21.4%
- Technology14.8%
- Materials14.3%
- Financials12.0%
- Consumer Discr.10.0%
- Real Estate7.5%
- Health Care6.7%
- Energy4.7%
- Cons. Staples4.1%
- Communication2.3%
- Utilities2.3%
Geography
- Japan15.32%
- Canada10.27%
- Taiwan (Province of China)9.09%
- United Kingdom7.42%
- India6.72%
- China5.64%
- Australia4.90%
- Korea (the Republic of)4.67%
- 35.97%
Developed 65% · Emerging 35%
VSS Performance
Shows how $10,000 changes over the selected period, with cash distributions reinvested at the closing price on each ex-dividend date.
Returns run to the Sep 22, 2026 close, with cash distributions reinvested. Each period starts on the same date that many months or years earlier. Periods over one year show the average yearly return.
| Period | VSS |
|---|---|
| Year to date | +12.3% |
| 1 month | +0.0% |
| 3 months | +1.4% |
| 1 year | +14.7% |
| 3 years | +17.8% |
| 5 years | +6.2% |
| 10 years | +7.8% |
Calendar-year total return with cash distributions hypothetically reinvested at the ex-dividend date’s closing price. The current year shows year to date.
| Year | Return bar | VSS |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | +12.3% | |
| 2025 | +29.6% | |
| 2024 | +2.9% | |
| 2023 | +15.6% | |
| 2022 | −21.5% | |
| 2021 | +13.1% | |
| 2020 | +11.8% |
VSS in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on VSS yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
VSS Dividends
- 2.82%
- $4.51
- $0.30 per share
- Quarterly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 18, 2026 | Sep 22, 2026 | $0.30 |
| Jun 18, 2026 | Jun 23, 2026 | $0.86 |
| Dec 19, 2025 | Dec 23, 2025 | $3.35 |
| Sep 19, 2025 | Sep 23, 2025 | $0.76 |
| Jun 20, 2025 | Jun 24, 2025 | $0.74 |
| Dec 20, 2024 | Dec 24, 2024 | $2.54 |
| Sep 20, 2024 | Sep 24, 2024 | $0.56 |
| Jun 21, 2024 | Jun 25, 2024 | $0.84 |
| Dec 18, 2023 | Dec 21, 2023 | $2.05 |
| Sep 18, 2023 | Sep 21, 2023 | $0.56 |
| Jun 20, 2023 | Jun 23, 2023 | $1.00 |
| Dec 19, 2022 | Dec 22, 2022 | $1.83 |
VSS Risk
- 14.3%
How it’s calculated: standard deviation
The sample standard deviation of monthly total returns, multiplied by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Total returns include reinvested distributions.
- 0.83
How it’s calculated: Sharpe ratio
Subtract each month’s Treasury-bill return from the fund’s monthly total return.
Divide the average of those excess returns by their sample standard deviation, then multiply by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Each month uses the Treasury yield quoted at the end of the previous month.
- −33.3%
How it’s calculated: maximum drawdown
The largest percentage decline from an earlier peak, using total returns with reinvested distributions.
Uses up to five years through the last close, with at least 12 months required.
- 0.98
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
VSS Cost
- The middle half of International Small-Cap funds
- Median 0.44%
No International Small-Cap fund charges less.