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Table 3

Mutual Funds and Equity Funds, 1980 to 1997

Type of Fund

Unit

1980

1985

1990

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

Total no. of funds

Number

564

1528

3105

3850

4558

5357

5761

6293

6778

No. of equity funds

Number

267

579

1127

1356

1615

1944

2211

2626

3014

Total shareholder accounts

Millions

12

35

63

80

94

115

132

151

171

Accounts w/equity funds

Millions

6

12

23

33

43

59

71

87

104

Total assets

Billions of dollars

135

496

1067

1646

2075

2161

2820

3539

4490

Equity fund assets

Billions of dollars

44

117

246

523

749

866

1269

1751

2399

Source: No. 844, Mutual Funds--Summary: 1980 to 1997. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States:

1998 (118th ed.) Washington, D.C., 1998.

The Demographics

lower income strata was so dramatic that from

of Ownership

1992 to 1995, the median and mean family

income of shareholders declined even as the

Worker capitalism has infiltrated many

median and mean income of households gen-

erally rose.30 The NYSE estimates that ten mil-

sectors of society. From 1989 to 1995, stock

ownership increased dramatically in every

lion stockholding families have incomes of

$25,000 or less.31 (See Table 4.)

age group, income bracket, racial cohort,

and occupational category for whom statis-

Age

tics are available. The rate of increase was

particularly steep among laborers and

Young adults and the elderly have long

farmers  (107  percent),  householders

been the age groups least likely to own

younger than 35 (65 percent), and families

stocks--the young because they have not yet

with incomes under $25,000 (80 percent).

started to save, the elderly because they con-

vert their savings to annuities, bonds, and

Income

other sources of retirement income. Share-

In 1935, 68.7 percent of "prosperous"

holding has been most common among

and 33.5 percent of "upper middle class"

Americans between the ages of 45 and 64. It

participants owned securities (including

still is. But the sharpest increases in share-

bonds). But among the "lower middle class"

holding have been among young adults and

and "poor" households, only 14.9 and 2.9

seniors in the first decade of their retire-

percent, respectively, held securities.2 9

ment. (See Table 5.)

A 1997 ICI survey also polled house-

By 1995, however, shareholding had

holders younger than 25. In 1997, 23 per-

increased sharply among households in every

cent of that cohort owned mutual funds.3 2

income bracket (except the highest, where it

remained pervasive). The most dramatic per-

In other words, householders 25 and

centage increases were among the poor and

younger now own shares at roughly the rate

lower middle classes. Fifty percent of stock-

that householders 34 and younger owned

holders had household incomes of $50,000 or

them in 1989. The NYSE calculates that the

less. Indeed, the spread of share-ownership to

median age of stockowners declined from

10