Global dividends grew to a record $1.75 trillion in 2024, according to the Janus Henderson Global Dividend Index, up 6.6% on an underlying basis. Headline growth of 5.2% reflected lower one-off special dividends and the stronger US dollar. The result for the year was slightly ahead of Janus Henderson’s forecast of $1.73 trillion, mainly owing to greater-than-expected strength in the US and Japan in the final quarter. Q4 payouts rose 7.3% on an underlying basis.
Over the year, growth was strong in Europe as well as in the US and Japan. Some key emerging markets such as India and parts of Asia such as Singapore and South Korea, also registered decent growth. 17 countries out of the 49 in the index saw record dividends, including some of the largest payers such as the US, Canada, France, Japan and China.
Large companies making their first dividend payments made a disproportionate impact. The biggest of these came from Meta and Alphabet in the US, and Alibaba in China. Between them they distributed $15.1bn, and accounted for 1.3 percentage points, or one fifth, of 2024’s global dividend growth.
From a sector perspective, almost half the growth in 2024’s dividends came from financials, particularly the banks, whose dividends rose 12.5% on an underlying basis. Media sector dividends also saw good growth, doubling on an underlying basis helped by Meta and Alphabet’s payments. Growth was very broadly based, however: telecoms, construction, insurance, consumer durables, and leisure all saw double-digit increases. The weakest sectors were mining and transport, which between them paid out $26bn less year-on-year.
For the second year running Microsoft was by far the largest dividend payer in the world, but Exxon, newly enlarged after its acquisition of Pioneer Resources, rose to second place, a position it last occupied in 2016.
Globally 88% of companies raised dividends or held them steady and the median, or typical, increase companies made was 6.7%.
For the year ahead, Janus Henderson expects dividends to grow by 5.0% on a headline basis, bringing total payouts to a record $1.83trillion. With the dollar strengthening against many currencies, which slows the headline growth rate, underlying growth is likely to be closer to 5.1% for the year.
Jane Shoemake, Client Portfolio Manager on the Global Equity Income team at Janus Henderson, said: “Some of the world’s most valuable companies, particularly those with roots in the US technology sector, are beginning to pay dividends for the first time, confounding those who said this cohort would eschew this route of returning capital to shareholders. In so doing they are proving that they are just like successful companies before them in that as they start to mature, they begin to generate surplus cash which they can hand back to their investors. These companies are giving global dividend growth a significant boost at present.
More broadly, 2025 looks to be an uncertain year for the world economy. The global economy is expected to continue to grow at a reasonable pace, but the risk of tariffs and possible trade wars, along with the high level of government borrowing in many large economies, could lead to further market volatility in 2025 – some bond markets have already seen yields surge to their highest levels in years. Higher market interest rates crimp investment, slowing longer-term profit growth and increasing the cost of finance, making an impact on companies’ profitability. That said markets still expect company earnings to rise this year – consensus forecasts suggest by more than 10%. Even if this is overly optimistic given some of the current global economic and geopolitical challenges, the good news for income investors is that dividends typically prove to be much more resilient than profits through economic cycles. Companies have discretion over how much they distribute to shareholders so there is much less variability in dividend income streams. This is why we expect dividends to reach a new record in the year ahead.”
ENDS
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Notes to editors
Our headline growth rate describes the change in the total dollar amount paid by companies compared to the corresponding quarter each year. Our underlying figure adjusts for the distortion that can be caused by one-off special dividends, changing exchange rates, the effect of companies entering and leaving the global top 1,200 that comprise our index and the impact of changes in payment dates. The latter two tend to be negligible over the course of a whole year at the global level, though they can have a greater impact in any one quarter, geography or sector.
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