Investment | Recent statistics show the popularity of investing: There are already nearly two million stocks or fund investments

Stock exchange shares and owning investment funds is increasingly common in Finland, according to a recent report from the Statistics Finland from statistics describing household wealth.

At the end of last year, 35.4 percent of Finns owned investment funds, stock exchange shares or both. Ten years ago, the number was smaller. In 2013, about 25 percent of Finns owned investment funds, stock exchange shares, or both.

All in all, nearly two million people owned fund investments or shares in Finland at the end of 2023.

Statistics Finland’s latest data takes into account the so-called residential population, i.e. all Finns who are not enrolled in institutions or staying abroad. The housing population also includes homeless people and people living in dormitories.

Investment funds According to Statistics Finland, ownership is slightly more common than ownership of stock exchange shares.

Of the people included in the statistics, 29 percent owned investment funds at the end of last year, while more than 16 percent had stock exchange shares.

Statistics Finland says that the proportion of people owning stock has increased after 2019, and especially with the share savings account introduced in 2020. Five years ago, only 13 percent of the housing population had stock exchange shares.

Statistics Finland specialist researcher Brother-Matti Törmälehto says in the bulletin of Statistics Finland that the popularity of share savings accounts has grown among young men.

“Eight percent of men aged 16-24 and three percent of women in the same age group had value in a share savings account at the end of 2023.”

Törmälehtö assumes that the increase in investment options and the general situation of the stock market has influenced the popularity of investing in Finland.

“Also, the increased visibility of saving and investing in the news and social media can have an effect on the fact that interest in investing has increased.”

in Finland men and women own investment funds almost equally often. In 2023, there were 778,000 men and 790,000 women who owned investment funds.

However, with regard to listed shares, there are more men than women as owners. In 2023, there were 541,000 men and 366,000 women who owned stock exchange shares.

According to Statistics Finland, at the end of 2023, the median of the combined value of investment funds and stock exchange shares was 5,770 euros and the average was 40,650 euros.

A quarter of the owners had a combined value of investment fund and stock holdings of less than EUR 1,150, and a quarter had more than EUR 21,900 in 2023. Ten percent of the owners had holdings worth more than EUR 70,700 and five percent more than EUR 138,000.

Supreme the median value of investment funds and stock exchange shares was held by older owners. Owners aged at least 75 had a median holding of 19,300 euros at the end of 2023.

The most common ownership of investment funds or stock exchange shares was in the 35–44 age group, where the owners’ share of the population taken into account in the statistics was about 41 percent. However, the proportions were of the same order of magnitude in other age groups as well, with the exception of the younger age groups.