Retail Investor Statistics: Confidence, Trust, and AI in 2026

Retail investor statistics at a glance

Retail investing is shaped by confidence, access, trust, and education more than by any single market headline. The latest dataset shows a broad gap between people who already invest and people who still sit out, plus a surprisingly strong appetite for learning, advice, and AI support.

Fast facts

The 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook surveyed 13,036 respondents across 13 countries (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
The survey included 8,805 investors and 4,231 non-investors (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
All respondents were over 18 years old and the survey was fielded in August 2024 (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
The U.S. sample included 1,003 respondents (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
In the FINRA Foundation’s 2024 Investor Survey, 34% of U.S. adults held stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or ETFs in non-retirement accounts (FINRA Foundation 2024 Investor Survey).

What retail investor statistics say about participation
Age, confidence, and learning patterns
What keeps non-investors out
How investors learn and make decisions
Trust, information sources, and AI
What the U.S. investor data adds

What retail investor statistics say about participation

The participation picture is straightforward: many adults are exposed to investing, but the majority are still not in the market in a direct retail sense. Across the global survey, 8,805 respondents were investors and 4,231 were non-investors (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook). That split matters because it shows retail investing is already mainstream enough to study at scale, while still leaving plenty of room for conversion from curiosity to action.

Big number: 34% of U.S. adults held stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or ETFs in non-retirement accounts in the FINRA Foundation 2024 Investor Survey. That is a meaningful base, but it also leaves most adults outside direct taxable-account participation.

A useful way to read these retail investor statistics is to separate two questions:

Who already invests?
Who would invest more if the barriers fell?

The dataset says those are not the same group. Among the non-investors, the blockers are practical and emotional at the same time: money, fear, complexity, and trust all show up.

Age, confidence, and learning patterns

Age is one of the clearest dividing lines in the dataset. The survey included 2,285 Gen Z respondents, 4,259 Millennials, 3,401 Gen X respondents, and 3,091 Baby Boomers (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook). That distribution gives a large enough sample to see how confidence changes across generations.

Confidence by generation

Group	Very or extremely confident in financial markets
Gen Z	41% (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook)
Millennials	40% (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook)
Gen X	27% (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook)
Baby Boomers	20% (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook)

The pattern is notable: younger adults report the highest confidence, while older cohorts are more cautious. That does not automatically mean younger investors are better informed or more experienced. It does suggest they are more willing to engage with financial markets as a normal part of life.

Education also shows up as a major differentiator. Among investors, 24% of Gen Z learned about investing at university or graduate school, compared with 19% of Millennials (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook). Meanwhile, 16% of Gen Z investors and 13% of Millennial investors learned about investing in secondary school or lower school (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).

Those numbers matter because they point to a pipeline effect. When investing is introduced earlier, it becomes less like a niche financial skill and more like ordinary literacy.

Why the age split matters

Younger groups show higher confidence but also more exposure to social and digital influence.
Older groups are more cautious and more likely to need reassurance around risk and trust.
Education appears to be part of the confidence gap, not just age itself.

What keeps non-investors out

The non-investor data is some of the most useful in the whole set because it explains friction. The survey did not find one single reason people avoid investing; it found a cluster of obstacles.

Main reasons non-investors stay out

Barrier	Share of non-investors
Do not have enough money to invest	45% (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook)
Afraid of losing money	40% (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook)
Investing is too complicated or they do not know how to start	28% (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook)
Do not have access to the money needed to invest	18% (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook)
Do not trust financial institutions	17% (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook)
Do not think they have a fair chance of success	13% (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook)
Do not have time to invest	8% (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook)

The biggest barrier is financial capacity, but the next few are psychological and operational. That means retail investor statistics are not just about wealth levels; they are also about confidence, usability, and perceived fairness.

Why it matters: if nearly half of non-investors say they lack the money, and 40% say they fear losing money, then product design alone will not solve adoption. The message, education, and trust layer need to work too.

A second point is that the barriers are not exclusive. Someone can feel underfunded, confused, and wary all at once. That is why retail onboarding often needs more than a single onboarding screen or a basic FAQ page.

How investors learn and make decisions

A strong theme across the dataset is that people learn investing in very different ways, but many still prefer guided learning rather than pure self-directed discovery.

Where investors learn

42% of investors learn by doing (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
36% learn through financial-institution content (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
One in three Gen Z and Millennial investors use social media to find investing information (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
36% of Gen Z and Millennial investors use a tax adviser (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
33% use a financial coach (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
23% use a robo-adviser (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
15% use a budgeting application (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).

The learning stack is more layered than many people assume. It is not just “self-directed” versus “advised.” People are mixing direct experience, institutional content, social channels, and professional support.

What would make people invest more

The dataset also shows what unlocks additional participation.

70% would invest more if they had more opportunities to learn about investing (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
63% would invest more if they had more trust in the platforms they use (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
63% would invest more if a financial adviser recommended it (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
57% would invest more if they had more free time to manage investments (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
53% would invest more if a friend or family member recommended it (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
42% would invest more if an AI assistant recommended it (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).

This is one of the clearest signals in the entire dataset. Education is the top unlock, but advice and trust follow closely behind. That suggests retail investing adoption is constrained less by curiosity than by confidence architecture.

Key takeaway

If 70% of respondents want more learning opportunities, then education is not a side feature. It is a central part of the conversion path from observer to investor.

Trust, information sources, and AI

Trust is one of the most interesting dimensions in these retail investor statistics because it sits between behavior and belief. People need to decide whether the information they see is credible before they can act on it.

Information source credibility

40% of respondents are confident in the credibility of their information sources (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
49% choose information sources based on ease of access and clarity of understanding (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
38% prefer free information sources (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
36% prefer receiving information through platforms they already use for news or social media (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).

That combination suggests convenience matters nearly as much as authority. People do not always seek the most rigorous source first; they often choose the clearest and easiest one.

Developed and emerging economies differ sharply

Metric	Developed economies	Emerging economies
Confident in the credibility of financial information sources	30% (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook)	60% (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook)
Use a financial adviser, planner, or coach	28% (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook)	73% (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook)

Those are large gaps. They suggest that advice and trust ecosystems are not evenly distributed across markets. In emerging economies, advisor use is much higher, and confidence in financial information sources is also much higher.

AI and digital help

The AI-related numbers are especially revealing.

75% of Gen Z and Millennial investors use an AI chatbot (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
56% use a financial adviser (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
50% of Gen Z and Millennial investors would allow an AI assistant to manage their assets, compared with 33% of Baby Boomers (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
In the United States, 28% would allow an AI assistant to manage their investments (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
In India, that figure is 58%; in China, 55%; and in the United Arab Emirates, 54% (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
In Japan, it falls to 14% (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).

These are not minor differences. They show that willingness to delegate financial tasks to AI varies dramatically by country and generation.

Pull quote

Retail investors are not simply asking for more tools; they are asking for tools they can understand, trust, and access easily.

What the U.S. investor data adds

The FINRA Foundation data adds a second lens that is useful because it focuses on U.S. investors and market attitudes.

U.S. investor participation and beliefs

34% of U.S. adults held stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or ETFs in non-retirement accounts (FINRA Foundation 2024 Investor Survey).
Of those investors, 87% also had retirement-account investments (FINRA Foundation 2024 Investor Survey).
40% agreed that U.S. financial markets are fair to all investors (FINRA Foundation 2024 Investor Survey).
27% disagreed (FINRA Foundation 2024 Investor Survey).
29% were neutral (FINRA Foundation 2024 Investor Survey).
34% agreed that people like them are not usually investors (FINRA Foundation 2024 Investor Survey).
45% disagreed (FINRA Foundation 2024 Investor Survey).
23% were neutral (FINRA Foundation 2024 Investor Survey).

Those responses reveal a market where participation and identity are still not fully aligned. Many people hold investments, but a sizable share still do not see investing as something people like them normally do.

Fees, literacy, and misconceptions

The U.S. survey also shows some gaps in understanding cost and product structure.

21% of investors did not think they paid any fee for investing (FINRA Foundation 2024 Investor Survey).
17% did not know how much they paid in investing fees (FINRA Foundation 2024 Investor Survey).
Among mutual fund owners, 38% believed they did not pay mutual fund fees or expenses (FINRA Foundation 2024 Investor Survey).

That is a substantial signal. Even among investors, cost awareness is incomplete. For retail platforms and financial educators, this is a reminder that fee clarity is not a niche issue. It is part of investor comprehension.

Learning quality and basic knowledge

The 2021 Investor Survey helps show how durable some knowledge gaps are.

The average investor answered 4.3 out of 10 investing quiz questions correctly (FINRA Foundation NFCS Changing Landscape).
73% correctly said that buying a company’s stock means owning part of the company (FINRA Foundation NFCS Changing Landscape).
73% correctly said riskier investments tend to provide higher returns over time (FINRA Foundation NFCS Changing Landscape).
62% correctly said that buying a company’s bond means lending money to the company (FINRA Foundation NFCS Changing Landscape).
55% correctly said stocks have produced the best average returns in the U.S. over the last 20 years (FINRA Foundation NFCS Changing Landscape).
48% correctly said common stock is most at risk of becoming virtually worthless if a company files for bankruptcy (FINRA Foundation NFCS Changing Landscape).
44% correctly said past performance is not a good indicator of future results (FINRA Foundation NFCS Changing Landscape).

The mix is important. People understand some foundational concepts well, but still miss others that matter for risk and expectations. That helps explain why investing education remains a recurring theme in the global survey.

Another modern retail investor trend is the pull of social context.

66% of investors under 35 cited entertainment as a reason for buying meme stocks or other viral investments (FINRA Foundation 2024 Investor Survey).
65% cited social activity as a reason (FINRA Foundation 2024 Investor Survey).
In the 2021 survey, 60% of investors ages 18 to 34 used social media as a source of investment information, compared with 35% of investors ages 35 to 54 and 8% of investors ages 55 and older (FINRA Foundation NFCS Changing Landscape).
Among investors under 35, 56% used YouTube for investment information and 41% used Reddit (FINRA Foundation NFCS Changing Landscape).

That younger investors are more likely to use social channels is not surprising. What stands out is how strongly entertainment and social factors are now part of the retail investing story.

Practical reading of the retail investor statistics

Taken together, the dataset points to a simple but useful framework. Retail investing grows when people can answer four questions confidently:

Do I have enough money to start?
Do I understand what I am buying?
Do I trust the platform, adviser, or information source?
Do I believe this is for people like me?

The statistics suggest the first question remains a real barrier, but the second, third, and fourth may be just as important. That is why the strongest solutions are usually not pure marketing plays or pure product plays. They combine access, education, and trust.

A few final data points sharpen that view:

70% say more learning opportunities would make them invest more (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
63% say more trust in platforms would do the same (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
63% would also invest more if a financial adviser recommended it (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
42% would respond positively to an AI assistant recommendation (WEF 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook).
37% of investors in the FINRA Foundation 2024 survey were worried about losing money due to investment fraud (FINRA Foundation 2024 Investor Survey).

The story is not that retail investors are disappearing. It is that retail investing is becoming more layered, more digital, more social, and more dependent on confidence than ever before.