Stock ownership is often treated as a gauge of how much households trust financial markets. A 2025 study by HelloSafe, spanning 32 countries, found wide gaps in the share of residents who own shares, whether directly or through funds, pensions and life insurance. The United States leads at 55%, followed by Canada at 49% and Australia at 37%. At the other end of the table, Morocco sits at 0.5%.

The analysis below draws on the HelloSafe dataset, a summary of it published by Voronoi, market value figures from Wikipedia, and the Allianz Global Wealth Report 2026. Together, they cover ownership rates, investor headcounts, ten-year index returns, market size and household wealth.

One caution applies throughout: the ownership figures are estimates for 2023 and 2024 with a margin of error of 5% to 10%, so small differences between countries should be read with care.

Ownership at a Glance

Of the 32 countries HelloSafe studied, only two have more than 40% of their populations invested in stocks: the United States at 55% and Canada at 49%.

Most countries cluster in the middle. Thirteen sit between 10% and 20%, the largest group, including Japan, France, Germany and Hong Kong. Twelve fall below 10%, a list that includes China (7%) and India (6%) — the world's two most populous nations. Five countries are under 5%: Poland, Argentina, the Philippines, Mexico and Morocco.

The study counts both direct and indirect owners. Direct owners hold shares or exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Indirect owners hold equities through life insurance, pension funds or equity savings plans.

Several figures frame the overall picture:

• 185.35 million people in the United States own stocks, the largest investor population of any country.
• China and India combined have roughly 184.5 million investors.
• Global stock market value reached $136.3 trillion in 2025.
• Global household financial assets hit a record EUR 268.4 trillion in 2025.

These numbers show that owning stocks is common in a handful of countries and rare in many others. The gap reflects differences in pension systems, taxation, culture and access to investment products.

Ownership Rates by Country

The United States and Canada stand far above the rest. Their rates of 55% and 49% are well clear of third-place Australia at 37%.

HelloSafe finance expert Pauline Laurore ties the gap to retirement systems: in both countries, stock investing is built into pension schemes and supported by tax incentives. She also cites low-cost platforms and favorable regulation. Voronoi adds that many top-10 countries operate public pension funds linked to markets, and that no-fee investing platforms have drawn in new participants, especially those under 35.

Oceania comes next: Australia at 37% and New Zealand at 31%, with the United Kingdom close behind at 33%.

Europe shows a wide spread. Sweden (22%), Finland (18.7%) and Switzerland (17.6%) lead the region, while France (15.1%) and Germany (14.2%) sit lower. Belgium (5.0%) and Poland (4.9%) are near the bottom.

Asia's rates are modest overall. Vietnam (16.4%), Japan (15.2%) and Hong Kong (13.8%) are the highest, while the Philippines (1.5%), Mexico (1.2%) and Morocco (0.5%) post the lowest rates in the study.

The 5% to 10% margin of error matters here: a one- or two-point gap between countries, such as France at 15.1% and Japan at 15.2%, should not be treated as a firm difference.

Ownership by Region

Grouping countries by region sharpens the contrast. The figures below are simple averages of the countries in the HelloSafe study and are not weighted by population.

North America posts the highest average at 35.1%, a figure that includes Mexico at 1.2%. Excluding Mexico, the United States and Canada average 52%. Oceania follows at 34.0%, based on Australia and New Zealand. Europe averages 14.8% across 15 countries, and Asia averages 10.1% across eight. Africa averages 7.3%, spanning South Africa at 14% and Morocco at 0.5%. Latin America averages 6.5%, based on Brazil (8%) and Argentina (4.9%).

Laurore notes that savings in many emerging markets still flow mainly into real estate or low-risk assets. She adds that financial systems there are less developed and offer fewer investment products. In her view, India and China have room to grow if barriers in education, technology and institutions ease.

Investor Numbers by Country

Population size changes the picture. In raw headcount, the United States has 185.35 million investors, about 9.7 times Canada's 19.11 million.

China ranks second with 98.7 million investors, and India is third with 85.8 million. Together they roughly match the United States in total investors, despite ownership rates of only 7% and 6%.

Russia ranks fourth with 30.45 million, followed by the United Kingdom (22.11 million), Canada (19.11 million), Japan (18.70 million) and Brazil (17.12 million). Germany has 11.81 million investors and France 10.27 million — both below Brazil even though their ownership rates are higher.

Smaller markets illustrate how much population matters. Sweden has a 22% ownership rate but only 2.31 million investors, while Morocco has the lowest count in the study at 189,500. South Africa's 8.47 million investors are the most in Africa. Spain has 5.94 million and Italy 4.12 million.

These counts include indirect owners, such as people holding stocks inside a pension plan or life insurance policy. The methodology notes that data collection methods differ from country to country, which complicates direct comparisons.

Ten-Year Returns

Ownership and returns do not always move together. The S&P 500 in the United States delivered 16.89% a year from 2015 to 2025, the best of any index in the study. Brazil's Bovespa (15.92%) and India's BSE Sensex (15.90%) came next.

Vietnam's VN-Index returned 12.22% a year, and New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 returned 10.66%. Russia, Japan, Switzerland and Germany all landed between 8.96% and 9.18%.

Some high-ownership markets produced weak returns. Australia has a 37% ownership rate, yet the S&P/ASX 200 returned 3.33% a year. The UK has a 33% rate, and the FTSE 100 returned 2.67%. The reverse also holds: India has a 6% ownership rate and returned 15.90% a year, while Brazil, at 8%, returned 15.92%.

Three indexes lost ground over the decade: the Philippines' PSEi fell 2.01% a year, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.15%, and China's SSE Composite fell 0.04%.

One-year results can diverge sharply from ten-year trends. Between 2024 and 2025, Spain's IBEX 35 gained 25.7% and Germany's DAX gained 25.64%, though their ten-year annualized returns were only 1.65% and 8.96%.

Global Market Value Over Time

The world's stock markets were worth $9.52 trillion in 1990. By 2025, according to World Bank data compiled on Wikipedia, total value had reached $136.29 trillion — about 14 times larger.

Growth has been uneven. Market value fell from $60.46 trillion in 2007 to $32.42 trillion in 2008, a drop of roughly 46%, and did not regain the 2007 level until 2013. A more recent dip came in 2022, when value slid from $111.16 trillion in 2021 to $93.69 trillion, a decline of about 16%. Recovery followed, with $101.50 trillion in 2023 and $120.81 trillion in 2024.

The 2025 total of $136.29 trillion is 12.8% above the 2024 figure and equals 116.3% of world GDP, up from 107.8% a year earlier.

The number of listed companies also grew, to 60,392 in 2025 from 43,983 in 2015 and 23,732 in 1990.

The ratio of market value to GDP is sometimes called the Buffett indicator, a measure commonly cited as a rough gauge of how market valuations compare with the size of the economy. At 116.3% in 2025, it stands above the 2008 level of 56.2% but below the 2020 level of 133.4%.

The Largest Stock Markets by Value

The United States has the largest stock market by far, at $83.07 trillion in 2026. Wikipedia notes that it accounts for roughly half of the global total.

China is second at $21.17 trillion, a figure that includes mainland companies trading in Hong Kong. Japan follows at $8.75 trillion, then Taiwan at $5.50 trillion and India at $4.79 trillion. The UK ($4.76 trillion), South Korea ($4.57 trillion) and Canada ($4.33 trillion) sit close together, with France ($2.93 trillion) and Germany ($2.92 trillion) rounding out the top 10.

East Asia as a whole holds more than $40 trillion in market value, while Europe holds no more than $20 trillion.

Market size and household participation are linked, but not tightly. Canada's market is worth 157.8% of its GDP, and 49% of its people invest. Germany's market is worth 59.8% of GDP, and 14.2% invest. South Korea's market equals 262.6% of its GDP, but the country was not part of the HelloSafe ownership study — a reminder that a large market relative to the economy does not reveal how many households take part.

Household Wealth per Person

Allianz tracks net financial assets per person in almost 60 countries. In 2025, the United States led at EUR 296,950, up 9.8% from a year earlier. Switzerland was second at EUR 275,980. Denmark (EUR 197,510), Singapore (EUR 192,840) and Taiwan (EUR 164,470) completed the top five.

Several markets climbed the rankings over 20 years: Taiwan rose from 12th place in 2005 to fifth, Singapore went from 10th to fourth, and Sweden from 13th to sixth. Others slipped — Belgium fell from third to 10th, and the Netherlands from seventh to ninth. The Netherlands also recorded a 6.2% drop in net financial assets per person in 2025.

Germany ranked 12th at EUR 91,780 per person. Allianz says its climb of five places since 2005 mostly reflects the Bundesbank revising historical data and valuing unlisted equity holdings higher. France ranked 17th at EUR 77,940, the UK 18th at EUR 72,200, and Spain 20th at EUR 55,300.

Net financial assets are what households own in cash, securities, insurance and pensions after debt is subtracted. Because deposits and insurance count toward the total, a high per-person figure does not by itself reveal how widely shares are held. The measure excludes property — a significant omission in countries where savings flow mainly into housing.

Markets Versus Savings: What Drives Wealth Growth

Global financial assets rose 8.6% in 2025 to a record EUR 268.4 trillion, according to Allianz. Rising asset prices generated roughly four out of every five euros of new wealth, while fresh savings fell 5.4% to EUR 4.1 trillion. In other words, the gain came from price increases rather than from people putting away more money.

Securities grew 12.4% in 2025, more than twice the pace of deposits (5.7%) or insurance and pensions (5.0%). Securities now make up a record 46.9% of global financial assets.

Portfolio mix matters. North American households hold 60.7% of their portfolios in securities, and their region produced 51.4% of the global rise in financial assets. Over the past 10 years, price gains accounted for 71% of financial asset growth in North America, versus 36% in Western Europe.

Germany illustrates the other model. Its financial assets grew 4.9% to EUR 9.9 trillion in 2025, with new savings contributing 69% of that growth and price gains 31%. German securities rose 8.6%, bank deposits 3.8%, and insurance and pension assets 1.4%. Securities reached 37.1% of the portfolio, overtaking bank deposits at 36.4% for the first time since the data began. Funds accounted for about four-fifths of securities purchases, at EUR 97.8 billion.

The split highlights two paths to wealth: one built on adding new savings each year, the other on owning assets that rise in price.

Inflation, Market Risk and What Comes Next

Headline wealth figures look strong, but inflation changes the picture. Since 2019, global financial assets are up 50% in nominal terms; after inflation, the rise is 23%. The gap varies by region — real financial assets are up 21% in North America and 70% in China, but just 0.5% in Western Europe. Germany's real financial assets grew 2.5% in 2025 and are up 6.5% since 2019, yet remain 3.4% below the 2021 peak.

Market risk is part of the equation. The S&P 500 is up about 95% since the end of 2022. Allianz estimates that a 25% drop would erase around USD 27 trillion of US household wealth, close to 14% of total net worth.

Early 2025 showed how quickly conditions can shift. Voronoi reported that the S&P 500 had lost 15% since January at one point before regaining some ground, and it was still down 7% for the year when the article was written. With 55% of Americans invested, swings like these reach many households.

Allianz expects global financial assets to grow about 9% in 2026, with AI as the main swing factor. It adds that slower growth, inflation and high public debt could weigh on returns, and warns that gains from AI could be unevenly distributed. The key question, it says, is who gets a stake in that growth — a point that links back to how many households own shares.

The data shows that stock ownership is highest where pensions, tax rules and low-cost platforms make investing easy. It also shows that high ownership does not guarantee high returns. Readers should treat the ownership figures as estimates, given the 5% to 10% margin of error.

Sources

• Which countries in the world have the highest household investment in the stock market? (HelloSafe)
• United States, Canada, and Australia: The Countries With the Highest Stock Market Participation Rates (Funds Society)
• Ranked: Top Countries by Stock Market Ownership (Voronoi)
• List of countries by stock market capitalization (Wikipedia)
• Global Wealth Report 2026: Markets drive record wealth as AI raises the stakes (Allianz)