How will the market do this week?
In this week’s Time Machine, we dive into the history of stock ownership in the United States. The stock market is a market of owners who own shares of corporations and has been active in the United States since 1792 when a group of 24 brokers started the New York Stock Exchange. The first ever stock exchange came FAR earlier, however, set up in 1309 in Bruges, Belgium.
Public opinion surveys have asked questions about the stock market and exchanges since the early 1930s. Today, we travel through time to explore how American’s relationships with investment accounts have changed over the decades. In the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, known as Black Tuesday, public trust in the stock market crashed, too.
A poll conducted by Fortune Magazine in August 1938 found that only 9% of Americans would put money into “stocks or bonds” if they had a substantial sum. The crash had sparked a deep-rooted fear of market investments, with people preferring safer options for their money. Like sticking it under their mattresses.
Fast-forward a few decades. In 1977, Cambridge Reports and Research International conducted a poll that found 42% of Americans had not heard of an IRA (Individual Retirement Account) which had been introduced just a few years earlier in 1974. Congress created IRAs to give average Americans a chance to invest in the market for their retirement. They took time to catch on.
In 1979, a Roper Report found that 51% of Americans still felt most comfortable putting their money in a savings account, while 9% saved it in stocks or mutual funds, and 3% used an IRA. That same year, Opinion Research Corporation found that 85% of Americans had low-medium trust in the stock market, with only 10% having a high level of trust in the market. Maybe because the 70s saw the lowest rate of return in the markets since the 1930s.
Then things began to change. By 1996, a survey from Matthew Greenwald & Associates found that 47% of Americans said they had IRAs, and a 1997 ABC News Poll found that 54% of Americans had money invested in stocks or mutual funds, including retirement plans. While the decade started off with a market recession, the 1990s Clinton economic boom made checking IRAs a new habit.
But even through the dot com boom went bust, a majority of Americans were now invested in the stock market. As the economy recovered, stock ownership reached all-time highs in 2007, with 65% of US Adults invested in the market, and 68% of Americans saying it’s a good idea to “invest now,” according to Gallup polling.
And then another bust — and this time, it was a biggie. By late 2008 after the financial crisis, Gallup found just 42% thought investing at that time was a good move, with 55% calling it a “bad idea” to invest in the market. 70% of Americans were concerned that the crash would affect them in the long term, according to an October 2008 USA Today/Gallup poll, with 40% calling it the biggest financial crisis of their lifetime.
But since then, the markets have moved up and to the right in one of the longest boom cycles in stock market history.
Nonetheless, Americans appear not to have forgotten the pain — despite all major indexes hitting record highs nearly every year since a 2023 Gallup Poll reported that 61% of Americans said they owned a stock investment — still below Gallup’s 65% peak in 2007.
Looking back on stock market sentiment over the decades, it’s clear that American attitudes toward investing have been shaped by trial and error. From the cautious approach of the 1930s to the overwhelming participation of the 1990s and the mixed feelings following the 2008 crisis, the journey of stock ownership in the U.S. tells a unique story that perfectly encompasses the American dream. Despite the downturns and scares, remain optimistic and invested, and there will always be a brighter tomorrow. Whether you’re a seasoned investor or just starting out, it’s important to understand the historical patterns as you look to the future.
This post was written by Marist Poll Media Team member Hunter Petro.