What is a sovereign wealth fund?

Short answer: a sovereign wealth fund is money owned by a government and invested for the long term, usually in shares, bonds, property and private companies at home and abroad. It is normally filled from a surplus, such as oil revenue, a budget surplus or foreign exchange reserves, and run at arm's length from the yearly budget.

That is the simple version. The harder part is where the edges are. A government pension reserve, a central bank's long-term portfolio and a state holding company can look a lot like a sovereign fund, and different lists draw the line in different places. That is why counts in the press range so widely.

We handle this by showing every layer. Our list has 78 core national funds, 56 sub-national funds owned by states, provinces and cities, 67 state holding companies and development funds, 5 central bank reserve arms and 25 funds that are proposed or not yet operating. Each entity carries a label, so you can decide what to count.

On this page we explain the main types (stabilisation, savings, reserve investment, pension reserve, strategic and development funds), where the money comes from, how withdrawals are limited, and how a sovereign fund differs from a pension fund, a central bank and a state-owned company. Every example links to a sourced profile.

Part E. Insight pages (18)

Copy for the 18 insight pages. Chart data for each page is in `site_data/insights/{slug}.json`.