Stock Market Statistics (2026)

About 62% of US adults own stock, whether directly, through a fund, or in a retirement account, according to Gallup's 2025 reading. That matches the 2001-2007 peak and marks a full recovery from the post-financial-crisis slump (see the chart below).

Ownership fell to a record-low 52% in 2013 and 2016 as a generation soured on stocks after 2008, then climbed back as markets boomed and commission-free apps lowered the barrier to entry.

The US stock market was worth about $69.0 trillion at the end of 2025, up from $62.2 trillion a year earlier, and reached $75.3 trillion by June 30, 2026, about 19.8% higher than a year before (see the chart below). Siblis puts the total up about 460% since 1998.

To put the scale in perspective, US equities added roughly $7 trillion of value in 2025 alone, more than the entire market was worth in the early 1990s. By SIFMA's count Nasdaq-listed companies ($37.5 trillion) were worth more than NYSE-listed ones ($31.4 trillion) at the end of 2025.

The US dominates global equities. Against a $157.8 trillion global market cap in 2025, US equities were worth $68.9 trillion, 43.7% of the total and 4.4 times the next largest market, China, an outsized share for a country with about 4% of the world's population (see the table below).

The share eased in 2025: global market cap rose 18.9% while US market cap rose 10.9%, so the US fell from roughly half of the world total in 2024 to 43.7%, as markets outside the US gained faster.

Who owns stock splits sharply along income and education lines. 87% of Americans earning $100,000 or more own stock, versus just 28% of those earning under $50,000; 84% of college graduates own stock versus 42% of those with a high-school education or less (see the chart and table below).

There are also gaps by race, 70% of White adults own stock versus 53% of Black and 38% of Hispanic adults, and by marital status. Gallup finds essentially no difference by gender or political affiliation.

Ownership rises with age and assets. Just 39% of adults aged 18-29 own stock, the lowest of any age group, climbing to about 60% for those 30-49 and peaking around 62% for 50-64-year-olds before easing to 59% for those 65 and older.

The young-adult gap reflects lower incomes and thinner retirement accounts, not disinterest; ownership tends to build steadily as careers and 401(k) balances mature.

Even among owners, holdings are extraordinarily concentrated. The top 1% of US households held 50.9% of all corporate equities and mutual fund shares in Q2 2026, near the 52.3% high reached in 2019, and the top 10% held 88.1%; the bottom half held just 0.6% (see the table below).

The dispersion among owners is just as stark: in the 2022 SCF the median stockholder in the top decile held about $608,000, versus about $12,600 for the bottom half of stockholders, a gap of roughly 48 times. Stock ownership is common; meaningful stock wealth is not.

By the Fed's more detailed Survey of Consumer Finances, 56% of US families held stock in some form in 2025, down slightly from the record 58% in 2022 but above 53% in 2019. Participation rises steeply with income: 31% of families in the bottom half held stock, versus 77% in the upper-middle group and 97% in the top decile, and the bottom half accounted for nearly all of the 2022-2025 decline (Federal Reserve, October 2026).

Direct ownership of individual stocks jumped from 15.2% of families in 2019 to 21% in 2022, the largest between-survey change on record, then eased to 19% in 2025. Holdings grew larger: the median direct holding rebounded from $16,400 to $30,000 (2025 dollars), and among all families holding stock, directly or indirectly, the median rose 36% from $56,900 to $77,400.

Over the long haul, US stocks have been a powerful wealth engine. Since 1926 the S&P 500 has returned about 10.5% a year nominally and 7.3% after inflation, with dividends reinvested.

A note on averages: the compound (annualized) return is about 10%, but the simple average of yearly returns is closer to 12%, because volatility drags the compound figure below the arithmetic one. The 10% figure is the one that reflects real-world growth of money.

Those returns come with a stomach-churning ride. The S&P 500 has fallen an average of about 14% at some point within the year, yet still finished positive in roughly 35 of the last 46 years, about 75% of the time (J.P. Morgan).

In other words, a double-digit drop at some point during the year is normal, not a crisis. Investors who sell into every intra-year dip routinely lock in losses the market goes on to recover.

Zooming out, the market cycles between bulls and bears with rough regularity. Since 1928 there have been about 27 bear markets and 28 bulls; the average bear falls 35% over about 9.6 months, while the average bull gains 112% over about 2.7 years (see the table below).

Bear markets arrive roughly every 3.5 years on average. The asymmetry is the whole case for staying invested: bulls last about three times as long as bears and more than recover the losses.

There were 3,908 US-listed domestic companies in 2025, down from 4,010 in 2024 and well below the mid-1990s peak of more than 7,000, as buyouts, mergers, and a preference for staying private thinned the ranks.

The Nasdaq alone listed about 4,044 companies at the end of 2023 across its three tiers, while the NYSE lists roughly 2,400. Fewer public companies means the index is increasingly dominated by a handful of very large firms.

Activity is brisk. US exchanges traded an average of 19.0 billion shares a day in 2026 through September, up 10.3% year over year, after a record 17.6 billion a day in 2025 (see the table below).

The new-issue market has reopened too: US equity issuance (excluding SPACs) was $232.6 billion in 2025, up 4.3%, with IPOs raising $47.0 billion, up 50.0%. 2026 has run far ahead of that pace, with $355.1 billion of equity issuance and $139.4 billion of IPOs through September.

The money behind the market is increasingly institutional and retirement-driven. Total US retirement assets reached $53.6 trillion in 2025, including $18.7 trillion in IRAs (SIFMA), while US-registered investment companies held $45.1 trillion at year-end 2025 (ICI) (see the table below).

ETFs alone held $13.4 trillion across 4,495 funds at the end of 2025, and net share issuance hit a record $1.5 trillion in 2025, up from $1.1 trillion in 2024. A growing share of the market is owned through funds inside tax-advantaged accounts.

The through-line: stock ownership is broad and near record highs, the market is enormous and US-dominated, and long-run returns are strong but volatile. The catch is concentration, most of the wealth, and most of the gains, accrues to households that already hold the most.

For an individual investor, the practical lessons are the durable ones: participate (time in the market beats timing it), expect double-digit drops as the price of long-run growth, and use low-cost funds inside tax-advantaged accounts to compound alongside the market.