Ownership of Stocks, Mutual Funds, and Retirement Accounts Across Communities

Another day, another rollercoaster for the stock market when the averages of the major indices go up and down. But while media organizations have focused intently on the fate of the Dow (and the Nasdaq and the S&P), the underlying question has been how many Americans have a vested interest?

The answer: It depends on where you’re looking, but probably less than you might think. Or that’s the answer according to consumer survey data from MRI-Simmons and the American Communities Project.

A little more than a quarter of Americans say they have money in a mutual fund, 24% say they have a 401(k) account, 5% say they have a 403(b), and 14% say they own stock. But the numbers vary dramatically in the ACP’s 15 community types and some of the responses raise new questions of understanding.

For instance, most mutual funds contain stocks as do most 401(k) accounts, so the people who own those things likely own stocks in some form. It’s possible, maybe even likely, that most people do not know the exact holdings of their retirement accounts.

Still, the numbers here offer a guide to understanding who in America may be watching the markets with some hesitation in early 2025.

Mutual Funds

Overall, 27% of Americans say they are invested in a mutual fund. But the figures are as low at 19% in the African American South and Evangelical Hubs and as high as 31% in the Urban Suburbs and Exurbs.

Mutual funds are not exclusively stock vehicles, of course. They are portfolios of investments that can holds stocks as well as bonds and other investments. But most of them usually contain at least some stocks.

And the community type numbers here follow a similar pattern that we see on other forms for investments. People in the Urban Suburbs and Exurbs are those most likely to be invested in a mutual fund. Those communities also have the highest percentage of people bachelor’s degrees and the highest median household incomes.

The Middle Suburbs are the next highest among the types and that likely has something to do with the historical employment in those blue-collar communities mostly based in the Industrial Midwest. The employers in those places were often larger manufacturing companies that gave their workers, many of whom were in unions, good benefits. The ACP sees similar trends around health insurance in these places — they are usually a little above the national average for coverage even though their incomes and educational attainment levels are not especially high.

Stocks

The number for stock ownership, 14%, is likely lower than most people would expect, especially considering the continuous coverage of the stock market gyrations in recent days. Even in the Urban Suburbs, where the stock ownership number is highest in these data, the figure only sits at 17%. And in five of the 15 community types, the percentage for stock ownership is in the single digits.

But the assumption is that these data refer to people being aware of owning a single stock — such as owning shares of, say, Apple. And despite stories about day traders or people who are constantly on their phones putting in buy and sell orders, these data suggest that behavior is limited to a small number of people.

Again, the community types leading the way here are the Urban Suburbs and Exurbs.

Retirement Plans: 401(k) and 403(b) 

Retirement accounts, where many Americans invest to safeguard their long-term future, have been hit hard since the cascading tariff announcements. As the ACP zeros in on options available to workers at for-profit businesses, 401(k)s, and tax-exempt organizations, 403(b)s, it’s evident that more affluent communities have generally been more exposed to the market instability.

Drilling down beyond the 24% of Americans who said they have a 401(k), the LDS Enclaves — Mormon-dominated communities in the interior West where there is a heavy presence of technology firms — came in highest among the 15 types at 28%, considered above average. Unsurprisingly, affluent Exurbs and Urban Suburbs rounded out the top three at 27% and 26%, respectively. The two suburban communities’ index scores were on the upper end of average for their populations. Lower-income, rural communities of varying diversity were at the bottom of the pack: Native American Lands at 19%; African American South, Hispanic Centers, and Working Class Country at 21%; and Evangelical Hubs at 20%. Larger for-profit companies that offer such plans are scarce in these parts.

Meanwhile, just 5% nationally said they owned any 403(b) accounts, which are frequently offered to nonprofit and government employees, including those who work in public schools. Slightly higher than the national rate were Urban Suburbs, Exurbs, and LDS Enclaves at 6%. But so were Middle Suburbs in the Rust Belt, where globalization at the turn of the century led to much business stagnation and greater employment in tax-exempt organizations. The percentages with 403(b) accounts in the Middle Suburbs, Urban Suburbs, and Exurbs were all considered above average for their populations, while the percentages in Working Class Country, Native American Lands, African American South, Evangelical Hubs, and Hispanic Centers were all much below average.

The Point

If there is a big takeaway in all these numbers, it may be that the media’s focus on covering the daily rises and falls on Wall Street misses the larger story of what is going in Main Street, at least for now.

As the great tariff fight begins, the market indices may just be proxies for the psychological state of the people who play the markets. After all, right now the Dow and the S&P and Nasdaq are not really reacting to tariffs — they are reacting to the idea of tariffs. They bounce up and down with the hopes and fears of the investor class.

The better time to keep an eye on Wall Street is probably in the months ahead. If the tariff fight lingers without a real conclusion for months, the markets will become more than a space for speculative thinking about what could happen to the U.S. economy, they will be space to see how people are responding to what actually happens.

At that point, the moves in the market won’t just be affecting people who are invested, they will be broader signs about the state of the economy as a whole.