Why Stock Ownership Has Finally Returned to Pre-2008 Crash Levels

After 18 odd years, stocks are finally back in vogue. According to analytics company Gallup, 62% of Americans reported owning company shares in 2024 and 2025, a level previously not seen since 2007, the year the Great Recession began.

No reason for this upturn in stock market participation was given, but popular tech stocks delivering bumper returns, greater accessibility thanks to the rise of online trading platforms, and increased access to employment-based retirement plans are likely factors.

What the Data Says

Since 1998, Gallup has been asking Americans once a year whether they owned stock in publicly traded companies, whether personally or with their spouse. That doesn’t just mean directly owning shares in individual companies—investments in mutual funds or retirement savings accounts like a 401(k) or IRA also count.

The readings were consistent during the poll’s first decade, hovering around 60%. Then the Great Recession struck, the stock market crashed, many people lost their jobs and their savings, and trust in the financial sector was severely dented.

Over the following decade, stock ownership remained well below the prior established norm of about 60%. It hit a low of 52% in both 2013 and 2016 and didn’t bounce back to 60% until 2023. The number again reached 62% in 2024 and 2025, not far off the 63% record set in 2004.

Why Has Stock Ownership Bounced Back?

Multiple factors could cause stock ownership to fluctuate, including market booms and busts, household finances, and access to employment-based retirement plans. So it’s difficult to assign a rise or fall in stock ownership to any one factor.

The shock of the 2007-2008 financial crisis and the market crash were likely factors in the decline in ownership in the following years. Many people also may have had to liquidate their accounts to meet expenses in the prolonged, painful recession that followed.

In recent years, though, the percentage of employees with access to retirement plans has been climbing, from 54% in 2010 to 66% in 2024. The rise accelerated once certain part-time employees were granted the right to participate, which certainly helped drive overall stock ownership figures higher.

So, too, the rise of more accessible stock trading platforms such as Robinhood, which offer the ability to buy fractional shares, making it easier and cheaper to trade stocks.

The Bottom Line

More Americans are investing in stocks than at any point since 2007. A lot has happened since that date, including another market crash and recession, a long bear market, and an unprecedented period of low borrowing costs followed by rampant inflation.

But perhaps the market’s performance is most responsible for the rise in stock ownership. The S&P 500, which touched a record high in February 2025, is now nearly nine times higher than it was at the depths of the 2008 crash, and 2.5 times higher than it was at the lows reached during the 2020 COVID-19 crash. Those kind of gains tend to attract investors.