What percentage of Americans own stocks?

By Louis Jacobson on Tuesday, September 18th, 2018 at 2:02 p.m.

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The accompanying graph details the "distribution of stock ownership by wealth percentile," specifically 84 percent for the "top 10 percent," 9.3 percent for the "next 10 percent" and 6.7 percent for the "bottom 80 percent." ... The data in the graph stems from a peer-reviewed academic paper. However, when we took a closer look, we found the data in the graph doesn’t directly support the claim that "most Americans don’t own stocks." In fact, the actual data on that question shows that a small majority of Americans do have a stake in the stock market.

Stock value vs. stock reach

The data in the graph comes from a paper published in November 2017 by New York University professor Edward N. Wolff.
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Khanna uses a bar graph that highlights the imbalance in the value of stock holdings, but his headline claim is about the reach of stock ownership throughout the population. Those are two different things. ... When we contacted Wolff, he agreed that Khanna’s headline was "wrong." ... So what does the data show on the reach of stock ownership? It’s a bit wider than Khanna suggests.

Even if you don’t own or trade individual stocks, there’s a decent chance you have a 401(k) account or an Individual Retirement Account or belong to a pension fund that is invested in stocks. ... "Many individuals have an indirect interest in the stock market by means of their claims on pension funds that own stocks and use these stock positions to fund pension payments," said Hendrik Bessembinder, a professor at Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business.

A once-every-three-years study by the Federal Reserve Board found that in 2016, 51.9 percent of families owned stocks, either directly or as part of a fund. ... And in 2017, Gallup found that 54 percent of respondents owned stocks either directly or as part of a fund. ... Those findings show a majority owning stocks — a modest majority, but still a majority.
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