Gallup’s annual update finds that 62% of U.S. adults have money invested in the stock market, including individual stocks, a stock mutual fund or a retirement savings account. The figure is essentially unchanged from last year but reflects a return to stock ownership levels not seen since the Great Recession in 2008.
Stock ownership is highly correlated with income. The vast majority (87%) of upper-income Americans, those with annual household incomes of $100,000 or more, own stock. That compares with 25% of lower-income Americans (those whose annual incomes are less than $40,000). About two-thirds of middle-income Americans, 65%, own stock.
