Who’s Investing in Their Future?

Investing money in stocks, investment funds, or ETFs is a common practice in South Korea. According to data from a survey by Statista Consumer Insights, 44 percent of respondents polled in the last 12 months said they had made such investments. This puts the country towards the top end in an international comparison of 32 countries. Singapore saw an even higher figure at 48 percent, but due to a low sample size has not been included in this chart.

As this infographic shows, ownership of investments is also fairly widespread among urban populations in India and China. In many Asian countries, the state pension systems are under strain or do not offer as extensive coverage as those found in countries with more established social safety nets. As a result, people often need to make greater private provisions for their retirement, with many relying on savings, investments in stocks and mutual funds to secure their financial future.

According to Statista data, 17 percent of U.S. respondents currently own stocks or have investments in mutual funds or ETFs at the time of the survey, while 16 percent said they had investments in cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, 13 percent said they had money in real estate and 10 percent in precious metals.