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 is worth about $62.2 trillion as of the end of 2024, and had grown toward roughly $75 trillion by mid-2026 (see the chart below). It has expanded more than 357% since the start of 2010.

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.

The US dominates global equities. Against a $126.7 trillion global market cap in 2024, the US alone accounts for nearly half, an outsized share for a country with about 4% of the world's population (see the table below).

That concentration has grown: the US share rose from roughly 45% to about 50% in a single year, as American megacap tech stocks pulled ahead of the rest of the world.

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 hold about 49.9% of all corporate equities and mutual fund shares, a record, and the top 10% about 87% (see the table below).

The dispersion among owners is just as stark: the median stockholder in the top decile holds 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, 58% of US families held stock in some form in 2022, up from 53% in 2019 and the highest on record.

Direct ownership jumped too: 21% of families owned individual stocks in 2022, up from 15% in 2019, the largest three-year increase ever, a fingerprint of the pandemic-era retail trading boom. But the median direct holding, $15,000, was the lowest on record, meaning many new owners bought small.

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 are about 4,010 US-listed domestic companies as of 2024, 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 about 20.1 billion shares a day in 2026, up nearly 18% year over year (see the table below).

The new-issue market has reopened too: US equity issuance was $222.9 billion in 2024 (up 60.9% excluding SPACs), with IPOs raising $31.4 billion, and 2026 has run well ahead of that pace.

The money behind the market is increasingly institutional and retirement-driven. Total US retirement assets reached $49.6 trillion in 2024, including $17.0 trillion in IRAs, while US-registered investment companies held about $33.9 trillion (see the table below).

ETFs alone held $10.3 trillion across 3,637 funds at the end of 2024, and took in a then-record $1.1 trillion of net new money. 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.