The Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US Small-Cap ETF employs an indexing investment approach designed to track the performance of the FTSE Global Small Cap ex US Index, a float-adjusted, market-capitalization-weighted index designed to measure equity market performance of international small-capitalization stocks. As of October 31, 2016, the Index included 3,337 stocks of companies located in 44 countries, including both developed and emerging markets. As of October 31, 2016, the largest markets covered in the Index were Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Taiwan (which made up approximately 16%, 14%, 11%, and 6%, respectively, of the Index's market capitalization). The Fund attempts to sample the target index by investing all, or substantially all, of its assets in common stocks in the Index and by holding a representative sample of securities that resembles the full Index in terms of key risk factors and other characteristics. These factors include industry weightings, country weightings, market capitalization, and other financial characteristics of stocks.
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