US Dollar Index Components: Which Currencies Are Included?
Ask most people which currencies the US Dollar Index tracks, and many assume it must include China’s yuan, Mexico’s peso, or a broad global basket reflecting America’s actual trading partners today. It doesn’t. DXY tracks exactly six currencies, chosen decades ago, and the list hasn’t meaningfully changed since 1999. This article answers the direct question — which currencies are actually included, why those six, and which major currencies are notably left out.
The Six Currencies Included in DXY
The US Dollar Index is calculated using exactly six foreign currencies, each assigned a fixed weight:
- Euro (EUR) — 57.6%
- Japanese yen (JPY) — 13.6%
- British pound (GBP) — 11.9%
- Canadian dollar (CAD) — 9.1%
- Swedish krona (SEK) — 4.2%
- Swiss franc (CHF) — 3.6%
That’s the complete list. No other currency, regardless of its global trading volume or its importance to US trade today, factors into the DXY calculation in any way.
Why These Six Currencies Were Chosen
When the index was created in 1973, its composition was meant to reflect the currencies of the United States’ most significant trading partners at that time. The original basket included several currencies that no longer exist as independent units today — the German mark, French franc, Italian lira, Dutch guilder, and Belgian franc among them — alongside the yen, pound, Canadian dollar, Swedish krona, and Swiss franc.
In 1999, with the launch of the euro as the eurozone’s shared currency, all the legacy European currencies in the basket were consolidated into a single euro component, inheriting their combined weight. This is how the euro ended up with such a dominant 57.6% share — it isn’t that the euro alone was judged to deserve that much weight, but rather that it absorbed the combined weighting of five separate European currencies that had previously been counted individually.
Since that 1999 consolidation, the basket composition and weightings have remained fixed, with no further additions, removals, or rebalancing.
Which Major Currencies Are Excluded — and Why It Matters
The most significant limitation of DXY’s currency selection is what’s missing. Despite being some of the largest and most important currencies in global trade today, none of the following are included in the index:
- Chinese yuan (CNY) — despite China being one of the largest US trading partners for decades
- Mexican peso (MXN) — despite Mexico’s deeply integrated trade relationship with the US, including under USMCA
- South Korean won (KRW) — a major US trading partner and significant global economy
- Indian rupee (INR) — representing one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing economies
- Brazilian real (BRL) — Latin America’s largest economy and a significant commodity trade partner
This exclusion list matters because it means DXY, despite its name, isn’t truly measuring the dollar’s value against “the world.” It’s measuring the dollar specifically against a fixed set of developed-market economies, most of them European, as they existed in relevance more than 25 years ago.
How This Affects What DXY Actually Measures
Because of this composition, DXY is best understood as a gauge of dollar strength against developed-market currencies, heavily weighted toward Europe, rather than a comprehensive trade-weighted measure of the dollar’s global standing. A scenario where the dollar is strengthening sharply against the Chinese yuan or Mexican peso — currencies tied to two of America’s largest trading relationships — would have zero direct impact on the DXY calculation, since neither currency is part of the formula.
Investors and analysts seeking a more complete picture of the dollar’s value across actual current US trade flows often reference the Federal Reserve’s own Trade Weighted US Dollar Index instead, which includes a much broader and more current set of currencies, including China, Mexico, and other major partners, and is periodically updated to reflect shifting trade relationships. DXY remains far more widely quoted in daily financial media, largely due to its long trading history and the availability of futures, options, and ETF products tied to it, but it isn’t the most comprehensive dollar-strength benchmark available.
Final Thoughts
DXY includes exactly six currencies — the euro, Japanese yen, British pound, Canadian dollar, Swedish krona, and Swiss franc — with weightings that have remained unchanged since the euro’s introduction in 1999. While this fixed basket gives the index a long, consistent trading history, it also means major currencies like the Chinese yuan and Mexican peso have no representation at all, despite their significant role in current US trade. Understanding exactly which currencies are and aren’t included is essential to interpreting what DXY is — and isn’t — actually telling you.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.